Dystopia
by Shadowed Chaos
Summary: TFA/G1 fusion AU. After Prowl goes missing and Decepticon activity starts to heat up on Earth, the Elite guard return, this time bringing with them a past - long buried and covered up - and secrets that connect the Great War to the hear-and-now. A past that had far reaching consequences,
1. Missing

**Missing**  
AU After a Fistful of Energon.

Timeline, measurement units and other locations this is post can be found on my profile.

**(Of vanishing Ninja)**  
Despite things seemingly at a standstill for now between the Autobots and Decepticons - due in part to Starscream currently missing and Megatron repairing the _Nemesis_ when not conducting raids for needed materials. Lockdown wasn't that concerned about Starscream, given Megatron required the prince alive to control the rest of the Seekers and Lockdown really wasn't interested in getting the middle of _that_ squabble. He liked his limbs attached. Even so, he wasn't taking any chances; he was here for a pleasure call, not official business and with enough credits in his account to make even Swindle jealous enough to whinge about it, he figured he could take a cycle off to do a pleasure hunt.

The prey in question was a Ninja. One with promise but lacked the training to make him a real threat. Likely why the kid was still alive. Same with the rest of the Autobots on Earth. If Megatron wanted them dead, they'd be _dead_ by now. Not that it was any of his business. He had mods to re-collect and collect his newest prize - and ascertain if it _was_ worth keeping the kid alive and unhacked or hand him over to one of the hackers.

He sent a communications ping across a secure, private line. It would be easy enough to find him, but it was more fun to chase someone who knew you were coming. The look in their optics...nearly priceless. Of course, that was normally how things went when one wasn't dealing with a stubborn Ninja. Much to his annoyance, that only flared into something of a temper when his ping was repeatedly ignored.

A growl of frustration and he folded down into his alt form. It didn't take him long to start prowling the streets, following Prowl's energy signature. While he hadn't expected the kid to make things easy, this was both annoying and pleasing, more so when he found the park where the Ninja was. He idled outside the gate with a rev of his engine, loudly. Another rev soon after- this time a scoff when the Ninja, instead of just showing himself and coming to the hunter, indulged the organic vermin. The mech was far too good for putting up with that kind of disgusting PR work.

"You still owe me for those mods, Prowl," he said when the bike - now with holo-rider- got closer. "I do plan on collecting, you know."

"I told you that if I saw you again, I'd hand you over to the Elite Guard." Prowl deadpanned. "The mods are gone. I used them to keep the Seeker clones from destroying this city several weeks ago."

"Then I have even more to collect from you. Those weren't cheap." Lockdown fought to keep his temper down. Instead he just revved his engine, edging towards the other. "If you can catch me, then I deserve to be turned over. I don't think you can. You couldn't even keep hold of a Starscream knock off. How do you think you'll catch a real mech?"

Prowl ignored the challenge, his holo-driver's face still very much blank. "I have no time for games, Lockdown."

Lockdown hurried to jam the commlinks when the kid tried to comm the base. Fragging pit -. He suppressed the growl and reminded himself that the kid was down right _lucky_ he hadn't even finished his training - how far he'd gotten Lockdown wasn't sure though. Otherwise there was no way in pit that Lockdown would have considered not hacking the Ninja when he got it back to his ship. And he would have the Ninja. It was only a matter of time before Prowl gave into to the desire to keep the organics as safe as he could. It seemed like an eternity in the strange face off between bike and car, but then the ninja transformed and took off into the wooded area of the park.

Heh. Keep the stupid flesh things safe at the cost of nature. Well, if that's the way that he wanted to play it, then Lockdown would agree to that, for now. He could also use it in the game between predator and prey. A quick calculation of the Autobot's path - the backstreets, eh? - and he was off, engine roaring to life.

"Game time, kid."

* * *

Lockdown couldn't deny the thrill of the chase as he prowled the backstreets, sensors on high alert. The kid, from what he'd seen, was good. Better than he'd expected the wash-out to be. Maybe he would have a hack into him and see what sort of battle processor he was running. Couldn't be more than a standard Autobot one, but some of the tactics... Hmm. Didn't match up with what information he had on his target. Prowl was only thirty thousand stellar cycles old - not even nine megavorns - though given he'd been fighting Decepticons on this dustball for several lunar months... A mental shrug. He'd have time to ponder that out later. He knew what he was going to do with Prowl when he found him.

It was only a matter of time before he had the Ninja in his grip.

Ah - He grinned to himself and without much of a thought, transformed into root mode and twisted out of the path of shuriken. A visual scan of the area - tracing the path of the shuriken was foolish, the mech who'd thrown them would have moved by now. Finding nothing, he growled and there was no way of knowing if the kid had unjammed his commlinks yet.

Best end this now.

"If you don't come out soon," his hook folded down into a cannon that then pointed down the street towards the busy traffic passing by. "I'll have to change the rules."

"They are innocents. Leave them out of this."

Lockdown's optics zeroed in on where he'd heard Prowl as he charged the cannon, knowing it would force Prowl to move the more he threatened. "They're nothing but bugs, Prowl. There's so many of them on this planet, swatting a few wouldn't harm the race. In fact, a little weeding out would probably be good for them."

"Lockdown. They are not involved in this. Like you said, it is between _you and I_."

When Lockdown smirked when Prowl showed himself, poised to leap in front of the cannon blast - and lowered the charged canon, keeping it out and charged just in case the Ninja tried to be smart with him. "We done playing games, kid? You don't seem to be making much progress in catching me, after all."

"Well.. If you place it that way."

Lockdown's face fell and he blinked when Prowl vanished - only to hiss in anger when the slagging kid jumped from behind and the canon went off, leaving a small crater in the ground. A growl, then a few fast paced backsteps saw him ram against the size of a building in an effort to dislodge the Ninja. At the same time he reached up to grab smooth armour in an effort to gain grip. "Seems you've been studying."

"The Ninja with the Guard left me materials to study." Prowl covered the others optics and focused, but Lockdown shut them off before Prowl could try _that_ particular technique. It'd be more than enough ward off the assault and he didn't need his optics with Prowl perched on top of him like he was. While Prowl tried his little trick - barely more than a tickle - Lockdown pried fingers into armour, denting it but not able to get a decent grip. A growl - he didn't want to use his hook unless needed - and he slammed back into the wall again. At the groan from his ninja, Lockdown wasted no time in swapping the cannon for his hook.

Once the hook sunk into the back of Prowl's knee, it was over in two seconds.

"Not good enough, Prowl." He pulled Prowl around to his front so the kid could see his smirk while his hand manually disabled Prowl's commlinks before it grabbed the other leg; no point in damaging him, yet. "I have to give you some credit for the try, though. You're better than you were. With the right training you could be real good. Now, easy way or am I gonna have to knock you out?"

"You'll do as you want."

"True." He ignored the glare from his Autobot as he made his way back to _Death's Head_. The fact that the kid wasn't struggling proved that having the hook behind the knee was a good idea. At least the walk didn't take that long and once he was in the ship proper, dropped Prowl onto a table in the bay and keyed the restraints online.

"Now. Time to talk payment for those mods, kid. Any ideas how you gonna pay them back?"

"...My holo-projector." Prowl watched the other pace around the table, refusing to squirm, to give Lockdown the satisfaction of seeing his fear.

"Tempting; it might make a nice little bonus." He reached out with his hand and drug it harshly down Prowl's thigh, optics lighting up when Prowl shook his head. "But not good enough."

"No. I am not a trophy. Or something for you to use. "

"You have a choice, really. You can pay the price I've named or I can take it from you servo by servo, data track by data track. Even the smallest parts have value in the market. But I'd hate to waste a chassis like yours." He traced a finger down the light bar on Prowl's forearm as the Ninja shuddered, visor flashing in fear. Lockdown smirked and leaned over the table, putting himself closer to Prowl only to pull back with a growl when his newest toy tried to head-butt him. If that was the way Prowl wanted to play it..

Lockdown's faceplates curled in a decidedly cruel smirk. "You owe me a debt and I'll collect. Being a _toy_ is better than dead, Prowl. I won't make the offer again. I can drag out that death too. If taken apart the right way, a mech can survive for a pretty long time without some important components. Although I've been told it's very, very unpleasant." And just to push the point home further... "Ninja also sell high on the market. Not just for parts, but the skills and teachings your kind have. Though given you never finished your tr-"

"How did you _know_ that-"

Lockdown grinned and dragged the hook down over the other's chassis. "I have my ways. Now, make your choice kid, before I make it for you. Trust me, you won't like it."

* * *

Thoughts, comments and general feedback are encouraged as it helps me improve my writing. Any mistakes you find are my own and I do welcome them being pointed out.


	2. Choices

**Choices**  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own.  
_Starfire201_: Thanks for the review. I hope you like this chapter :)  
Thanks to everyone who read the first chapter and I have something of a favour to ask re: the allspark almanacs. I heard one of them has a map of the animated universe. It'd be a big help if I could get a copy of that, please.

Timeline, measurement units and other locations this is post can be found on my profile.

**(Of choices made)**  
If mechs could pale, Prowl would have been white as a ghost. Instead his optics were wide behind the visor. No. No. _No_. This was not good. If he took the offer, he knew he'd be taken from this planet - from his friends - by the hunter. He would be his personal toy. _Interface_ toy by the data presented to him. If he didn't agree to that, then his death would be painful and he had no doubts that Lockdown could deliver on such a threat. That wasn't even taking into account what the Decepticon said happened to Ninja. He dry-swallowed, a habit that he'd picked up from the humans. He did not want to make the choice. "... I -"

Prowl looked away, visor dimming in defeat. Better to live and fight another day than to fight against insurmountable odds. "I'll be your toy."

Lockdown considered for a moment. "Giving in so easily?"

"You wanted payment, I'm giving it to you. End of talk." Prowl's hands fisted when Lockdown's hands roamed his chassis, feeling the restraints, reminding him of the helplessness of his situation, of how powerless he really was to stop anything. He knew his reply was cold, but he told himself this was just _business_. That it was the lesser of two evils. That he was doing this to stay alive. He _wasn't_ a traitor.

"You sure are taking all the fun out of this, kid."

Business like this wasn't supposed to be _fun_. Prowl scowled and distanced himself as best he could. He had nothing to say to Lockdown - even if the mech had pulled away somewhat. He refused to rise to any bait the hunter might dangle. He knew he was young, but that didn't mean he was going to act like it. Lockdown'd made it _clear_ what he wanted, so... why wasn't he just taking it? Prowl didn't understand - he wasn't sure he wanted to, especially when the hunter's hands passed over the injured knee then dipped down, toying with the sparking wound there. Prowl resisted the urge to shiver and turned his attention inwards -

A yelp followed soon after and Prowl inhaled in an effort to calm his mind.

"You owe me, but _this_ isn't how I'm getting my payment. You'll be here a lot longer the more you do this." Lockdown rubbed the wire again, just to make sure he had Prowl's attention.

"Does it matter? I'll be here for a while either way."

"Because this is _boring_!" Lockdown leaned on the table and scowled at Prowl, ignoring the way the Ninja looked affronted about the sudden invasion of personal space. "You're supposed to fight back. I'm not letting you go, no matter what you do, but you could have it a lot better if you would cooperate."

"You're in my personal space." Prowl mentally smirked when Lockdown scowled, but the Ninja continued on regardless. "I do not see why is is necessary that I react to you taking your payments from me."

Lockdown leaned further into Prowl's space, grinning devilishly at the twitch he got from his ninja. "I treat my possessions well, Prowl. Give me what I want and I can give you more than you can dream about while you're stuck here on this planet."

"Lockdown, personal space." Prowl steadfastly ignored the data that, so far, suggested Lockdown liked unwilling interfaces. He didn't want to consider it at all. The Decepticon seemed to have some morals, but... At the same time. No. Prowl mentally shook his head and hoped for the best.

"Don't care kid." Lockdown let a smug smirk work its way across his faceplates at the glare Prowl gave him. "You've got too much potential to waste it here on this dustball. You think that Elite Guard Ninja mech will teach you forever? As soon as Ultra Magnus gives him something else to do, _he'll drop you_."

"He left me training implements.." Prowl retorted, taking the bait at last - he could have kicked himself afterwards. But what Lockdown said about Jazz - it couldn't be true, could it? No. Prowl refused to believe that of the other Ninja. "He told me that if I keep practising, I would make a fine Elite Guard one megacycle..."

"Did he now? Probably second hand pieces of slag. He can afford to be generous with his words. He was leaving the planet and could conveniently be busy next time you try to contact him."

Lockdown smirked down at the Ninja that had just attempted to headbutt him. Prowl glared back, jerking when Lockdown tapped his fingers on a wrist near the restraint. "With me you could get taught so much more than even Jazz could teach you, you know. Different styles, different weapons, anything you wanted. Hell, Sixshot owes me a favour..."

Prowl couldn't deny the the offer was lucrative and did catch his attention. He knew it shouldn't have. Knew it logically; emotionally, there was the drive to prove himself. The youngster had never been sure why he'd had it, only that since flunking out of the dojo after his master had been murdered, it'd only grown stronger. A desire to learn and become a proper Ninja, _to be someone_ and not just a Ninja that had been picked up by Optimus's repair crew. "You have no assurances that I would not turn on you."

"Anything you learn, I learn. You wouldn't know anything that I didn't. Therein lies my advantage. I'm still bigger, still stronger. I'm offering you a lot and a chance to learn, kid."

Prowl grit his denta at the decidedly predatory look from the Decepticon, then looked away, unease growing in his tanks like an puddle of fouled energon. Prowl didn't want to admit he wanted to reach out and grasp it with both hands and never let go as that was the only way he'd live (something in his CPU told him it was the strongest chance, even if he was branded a traitor). But ... Could he just betray his team, betray the Ninja who'd offered to return and teach him? Jazz had been nothing but kind to him, nothing but willing to help with things that Prowl had issue with or couldn't seem to grasp when it came to the more abstract principles of Ninja techniques. Yet the offer... Was tempting. Yet now he wasn't looking at Lockdown, it was easier to focus and regain his equilibrium and remind himself that he was considering making a _deal_ with a Decepticon. Perhaps he could use circuit-su to get out of this mess and get some even footing back. "I doubt that you would understand half it.."

"Try me."

Prowl hissed when fingers dug into his wrist, squeezing until he looked back with in a mix of anger and hate, emotions gaining a foothold. The grip didn't last, for as soon as he was looking back at Lockdown, the fingers wondered up his arm then dipped into his elbow joint, drawing a shiver and slight gasp of pain when several wires were pinched. "-You're touching me on purpose."

"It's the point, kid. I haven't been subtle about my intentions." He put pressure on a cluster of tubes, grinning at the squirms Prowl couldn't quite hide. Not that the kid was going anywhere, the restraints held him fast and it finally looked like he was going to get what he wanted. It would take some coaxing, but he was a patient mech.

"I am your toy, am I not? Why do you not just take."

"Because your attitude is the biggest thing that interests me. If all I wanted was payment for those mods, I'd take it from your components. But you present a challenge, a game and I hate to lose."

"Its not going to change, Lockdown." He was kicking himself, wishing that he had the time to get himself together again. The vibrating from the mech's engine didn't help; it just drew splutters in protest, more so when Lockdown revved, shaking the table harder.

"I don't expect you to change. We can work together with you hating me." He seemed to study Prowl for a moment before grinning again. "Toy is the wrong word for what you are to me. A pet would be a much more apt description. Pets can hate their masters, but at the end of the day, I'm the one with your leash in my hand."

Prowl stared. The mech could not be serious. As if _Pet_ was any better than toy. He turned his face away, only to have it yanked back by Lockdown - wait, when did the mech have two hands? - and Prowl couldn't stop the fear from flicking over his face. This wasn't good. This was very not good and with his commlinks offline there was no way he could call for back up.

Lockdown chuckled and Prowl's spark seemed to skip in it's casing when he leaned in closer. "What if I told you I would put off collecting my payment for a bit longer if you came along with me? Take a real look at what exactly I'm offering you."

"You would?" Prowl blinked then studied his keeper for any sign of deceit, but he honestly didn't know what he was looking for when it came to Lockdown, so it was a useless endeavour. But he wanted to believe him - believe that it wasn't a lie.

"Pets get let off their leashes sometimes." Lockdown didn't look away from Prowl's visor. "I don't make offers I don't intend on keeping."

Prowl nodded slowly as he gave it some much needed thought. He wasn't happy with the situation - how could anyone be when they'd been practically claimed as Decepticon property, but he knew that if he ran, Lockdown would just keep chasing him until he got what he wanted - and there was also the very real risk of rape added on to that; there was _also_ the risk to his friends and the people of Earth on top of everything else. Perhaps this way.. he would avoid being raped and still be able to get some of the objects that he valued the most before he was dragged off by the other and possibly let his team know what had happened. "So.. If I asked to be.. allowed.. to gather some of my items.. I would be allowed?"

Lockdown thought for a quick moment. "Make it quick and keep your team out of it. You alert them or bring them anywhere in the vicinity of my ship and I'll detonate something _very unpleasant_ in the middle of the city. Same if you try and run."

Prowl flinched at the threat - and the implied one when a hand trailed over his thigh again. There went any ideas he had of bringing his team into this or eve trying to run. "I won't. You have my word."

Lockdown released the restraints. "Good. You have an earth cycle."

Prowl slowly sat up, careful not to startle Lockdown or do anything that would be seen as threat. He stood, a little shaky and nodded. That wasn't much time, but he'd make do.

"Don't be late."

"Understood."

* * *

It wasn't long until he reached the Autobot base, hiding himself under his holomatter. Part of him wanted to run, flee, warn the others so they could _do_ something but he was held by the moral chain and the horrific consequences that would happen if he tried to back out now. Prowl had no doubts that Lockdown would carry out the threat. He was a Decepticon and they were nothing but a bunch of savage, war hungry war-builds that had rebelled in the distant past and been suppressed for it. Then later, at the height of the Golden Age they'd rebelled again and brought about The Great War that had lasted several million stellarcycles until the Autobots, lead by Ultra Magnus had banished them from Cybertron. That was as much as Prowl knew and he'd never considered looking up the past. He'd been sparked in peace times and raised in a smaller cresh in Praxus. What use did he have for the past?

With a soundless sigh and a sinking spark, Prowl slipped into his room, carefully gathering up the few datapads that contained the texts, the rest of his Ninja-stars and the few nature books he'd been given by the locals. He paused then shook his head. He didn't have time to contemplate the choices and what this would look like. He _had_ to get back to the ship. He exited the way he'd come: silent and swift, ignoring the pain from his knee that came with transformation. He'd deal with that later. Right now, he needed to keep himself hidden and away from prying eyes and optics. He was doing this, he told himself, as he had no choice. If he ran, the loss of life would be staggering. He refused to do that to innocents.

The docking bay opened when he approached and there was only a moments hesitation before Prowl drove in. The door closed behind him and he was barely in his root form before the ship took off. Prowl grit his denta before heading t the front of the ship. He found Lockdown waiting for him, the autopilot set for a destination that Prowl didn't know.

"No one saw me, as far as I know."

Lockdown smirked. "I know. The spare room's down that way." He pointed towards the back of the ship. "Recharge berth and all. Don't expect it to lock, but it's yours."

"Thank you." Prowl nodded and limped off, not in the mood for talking. His knee hurt, his pride was wounded and he felt like he ha just signed a deal with the devil. Granted, everything was better than he;d expected but the invisible noose was around his neck.

Lockdown let him go; he doubted Prowl would try and attack him any time soon.

* * *

Another chapter down. Thoughts, comments and feedback welcomed. I like knowing what people think of my fic so far.


	3. Bargains

**Bargains**  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own.  
Thank you all for the reviews and I'm glad you're all liking Lockdown.

This chapter touches on several aspects of Decepticon culture that will be important in later chapters, but nothing overt yet.

Timeline, measurement units and other locations this is post can be found on my profile.

**(Of molestations and bargains.)**  
Lockdown felt pretty damn pleased with himself, all things considered. The cycle had worked out much better than he'd planned and they'd put at least three cycles worth of hyperspace-travel time between them and Earth, though he figured it was about four or five. Sure he hadn't gotten to do any interfacing, but his little pet was stuck with him for the foreseeable future. He'd have to find something to mark the Ninja as his before they arrived in the outerrim of Decepticon space though. It'd be easy enough, given he knew he could pick it up from the station they'd be stopping at.

Along with getting what he needed from the station, he'd pick up some upgrades for the kid. If he was going to keep a Ninja pet, he'd make sure the thing was outfitted with decent upgrades. Not the best - didn't want his project turning on him in the middle of taming it -, but they would be a step up for Prowl. There were markers and Lockdown, while no Ninja himself, knew enough of them to make rough estimations on the fly. Kid likely hadn't gone past the first upgrade.

A double check that they were still on course before he left to gather supplies to fix Prowl's knee. He wasn't doing it out of the kindness of his spark, but the simple fact that he wanted to put Prowl more in his debt. Not that he'd let the kid go even if he managed to pay it off, but the debt issue would keep Prowl relatively docile for now. Repair kit gathered from one of his shelves then a forcefield thrown up to keep Autobot servos off his prizes, the bounty hunter headed down to the only spare room.

He wasn't surprised to find Prowl there in meditation. Lockdown wasn't wholly unfamiliar it - It had a way of soothing ruffled nerves after a long megacycle and or harder than normal bounties. Based on what he knew of Ninja, he figured Prowl could stay like that for megacycles, focused in contemplation of a myriad of things. This gave Lockdown time to run a discreet scan -

_Bingo_. Seemed like he'd been right about Prowl. The kid showed promise; worth keeping alive and training and Lockdown wouldn't deny the idea of having a pet Ninja at his beck and call _was_ alluring. But that was down the track. First things first.

He scuffed his foot on the floor - the only advanced warning he'd give as surprising a Ninja wasn't a particularly smart idea. "Let me see your leg."

"Thank you for the warning." It was mumbled, but there was a tone of gratefulness there. Lockdown mentally snorted. He had only done it because a hail of ninja-stars would have put a crimp in his day.

"You don't live long in my line of work if you do stupid things like surprising a Ninja. Saw someone learn that the hard way and don't have the particular desire to repeat it." Granted, that someone had snuck up on _Sixshot_ of all mechs but it'd been enough to impress on him the importance of warning a friendly Ninja. He didn't wait for permission; just took a seat across from the Ninja and took Prowl's leg firmly but gently and pulled it closer to get a better look. After a cursory scan, he started in on repairs, ignoring the way that Prowl seemed to tense at first. Lockdown had to suppress the nasty grin even as Prowl cautiously relaxed. Poor kid didn't even know this visit had a number of purposes. "If only Bumblebee would have learned that."

"They're lucky you have some self control. That or you haven't meditated well in a good long while." His hands were quick and gentle as he went about his task. He could have let Prowl do it himself, he supposed, though he didn't know for sure if the 'bot knew how to repair himself. Besides, it gave him an excuse to be closer hopefully without making Prowl feel pressed enough to try that drone act again.

"I joined a repair crew sometime after I flunked out of the academy sponsored dojo." Technically, he'd been found, but same thing. "I rarely had time after to meditate."

"Same 'bots that Megatron's toying with then."

"Toying?"

"What, you think you were that good to stand up to Decepticons?" Lockdown let the nasty grin slip onto his face. Time to shatter whatever thoughts the kid had about his team defeating the Decepticon leader. "Megatron, for whatever reason, is toying with your team. Though we never could figure out how you've lasted so long even with that fact. Stop twitching. I ain't going to rip anything out."

"Oh." Well. Prowl had to admit that _did_ make sense. "You appear to be quite skilled in this, Lockdown."

"Putting mechs back together is fundamentally like taking them apart, just reversing the process." He smirked a little bit at the uncomfortable squirm from his Ninja. Kid would get used what he did, eventually. "Plus, when you're on your own, it can be a lifesaver. I keep a field kit with me for just such an occasion. I'm guessing you've always had medics do your repairs?"

"Correct. Ratchet, or sometimes Sari and the Key." Prowl didn't see any harm in what he said. He doubted Lockdown would care enough.

"Key?"

Prowl hesitated slightly before speaking. "It's little more than a trinket as far as I can tell. Of no importance."

Lockdown paused in his repairs, considering what had been said and what hadn't. Information like that could be instrumental in something later on. "If it were just a _trinket_, how would it be repairing you? I've _seen_ files on what Megatron's been doing. Sends them out occasionally to his troops to remind them the boss is still alive and kicking."

Mostly it was to keep Deathasaurus in line and remind the heir apparent that Megatron was Not Actually Dead. When Prowl refused to answer, he set his tools down and took the smaller by the chin, leaning in to remind Prowl he was in a very _vulnerable_ position. "We're not going back to that planet and I'd bet Megatron knows what it is already."

Prowl flinched and Lockdown could see the fear in the Ninja's optics. He grinned a bit, other hand pressing on the half repaired knee. Prowl buckled into the questioning soon after with a hiss. "It's connected to the Allspark. Sari is the keeper of the Key and in turn, we protect her and the Allspark.."

"Connected to the Allspark huh?" Lockdown turned that bit of information over in his processors a few times before shrugging. "With Megatron already there, it'd be stupid to go stick my nose in and risk fragging him off."

He let go and started back in the repairs without a word.

Prowl relaxed somewhat once Lockdown was back to fixing his knee, but it didn't last long; as soon as he was done, Prowl found himself pulled onto Lockdown's lap and his wrists pinned together by a single hand while the other one rested on his thigh. Prowl squirmed, only to tense when the hand shifted slightly; he took it as a warning and his spark sank. He shouldn't have trusted Lockdown to keep his word - unless? "Thank you for the knee repair."

"Someone's got to take care of you until you learn how to do it yourself." Lockdown didn't move though and Prowl resigned himself sitting quietly on the hunter's lap. It wasn't that bad, minus the whole trapped feel and if he didn't squirm or anything, Lockdown would eventually let him go. Or so he figured. "The outpost we're going to should have plenty of parts for a frame like yours. Parts that fit me are going to be a bit too big for your chassis."

"A frame like mine?" Prowl looked at the other from the corner of his optics. If it was thing that Prowl hated, was anything being hinted at about his frame being wrong. "What does that mean? I am ...average... for a Ninja."

"You're small and thin and it looks like you don't have the grade of parts you should. Most Ninjas have joints and servos made of sterner stuff than this. Won't break or wear down as easy, keepin' ya'll quiet like you're supposed to be."

"I am plenty quiet!" Prowl bristled at the condescending chuckle that come with the tracing of the vents on his thigh, but he forced himself to remain still. The last thing he wanted to make a bad situation worse than it already was.

"Never said you weren't. Just said you wouldn't have to go through as much maintenance if you had the right parts. The upgraded parts are more flexible, too. Give you a lot more range of motion to do all of those fancy moves I've seen others do."

Prowl shivered when a seam was traced, but held still enough, still very much aware of what position he was in and with whom. He didn't pretend that it didn't unnerve him, but he focused on what Lockdown was saying, not doing. "How? The Guard has the best that is possible. They have to have the best. Jazz... He was wicked in the way he moved... "

Prowl, Lockdown noted, seemed to have a bad case of hero worship going on as he talked about the things that Jazz could do. His temper flared somewhat and the grip he had on _his_ Ninja's wrists tightened enough to draw a hiss of pain and the fingers on the thigh vents dug in, effectively shutting the Autobot up. Good. Last thing he needed his pet thinking about was the blasted Elite Guard. "Jazz is good, I'll give him that, but he ain't the best. The Guard is choosy, the Academy is choosy and the Autobots are choosy Sometimes the best mechs for the job get passed up for some _ridiculous_ reason." Like the fact you were sparked with a Decepticon signal or you were from the lower classes.

"That's not true!"

"Sure it's not, kid. I got passed up for weapons development stuff back before the war even began and now look where I am after I turned to other means of learning. Ship of my own, lucrative bounty business with my services in high demand. What more could I want?" Freedom from the oppression they faced as Decepticons.

"And you're a Decepticon." Prowl twisted and tugged at his wrists in a vain attempt to get free, but a dipped finger into his vents had Prowl tense, optics wide.

"So what? You have potential, but unless you're actually the slaghead's mate - and I _know you're not_ - you won't get far. I read up on your team's files out of curiosity one day. Bulkhead and Bumblebee certainly got tossed quick enough when they weren't exactly what the Academy was looking for. Same with Optimus. Seems like Ratchet got himself demoted, too."

"Demoted?" Prowl's only answer was a dark chuckle and Lockdown resting his head on a shoulder as he pulled the finger out of a vent to trace thigh seams, delighting in the uncomfortable squirms from his pet. He ignored them though; there wasn't any chance of the Autotbot getting free. The exploring hand made it up to the hip joint and dipped in to caress the wiring in the between the armour plates. He didn't let up the molestations; Prowl was his and he had a right to explore his pet as he wanted - but he wasn't cruel enough to take it as far as rape (he'd never condone it nor would he sink as low, despite everything done to his kind. But at the same time, he wouldn't begrudge those who responded in kind.) He liked them fighting yes, but he also liked his interface partner's willing and there was a _difference_ between fighting because one didn't want it and fighting because you wanted it. Lockdown knew that difference, _intimately_.

"S-stop that."

Lockdown smirked and purposely revved his engine a bit harder at Prowl's squirming as he pressed into the wiring and toyed with it. The Ninja hissed, but that only drew a another engine rev before he pulled it out and allowed his hand to move up Prowl's abdomen, taking in the smooth curves of his armour as Prowl tried to get away. "You don't sound too convincing."

"St-stop it.. Lockdown, stop."

Lockdown slowed at the hint of panic and clamped down on his own desire. He'd spark himself off later. For now, it was time to see what Prowl was willing to 'buy' his patience with - kid didn't need to know he _was_ willing to wait. He didn't take his hands away though, even as he brushed lip components against an audio. "Nothing to be scared of."

"I am not scared." Prowl hissed, tilting his helm away. Lockdown begged to differ but if the Nnja wanted to hide it, he'd let him. "You said that you'd hold off until I had a good look at what you were offering."

Lockdown had to give the Ninja guts for trying that against a Decepticon, but it didn't stop the soft growl when Prowl looked away. "I did say that and I intend on sticking to it." He tightened his grip a bit just to hear a whimper. He would stick with his word; with the outpost nearing, Lockdown doubted he'd have had time for anything else even if he wanted it. "But how do I know you won't go back on your end of the bargain, hm?"

"I won't." Prowl twisted to look at the other, optics widening when Lockdown allowed it and he found himself back on the berth, wrists still gripped in the tight grasp. He floundered with his words, CPU locking up somewhat at the illogicalness of the situation. "I am by no means unawares of what interfacing is and what it entails, but..."

"Never 'faced before?" Lockdown grinned at Prowl's uncomfortable fidgeting. "I'm not surprised. Haven't you ever sparked yourself before? That's better than nothing. Much more fun with a partner, though."

"That is none of your business if I have or have not!" Lockdown sniggered. Did he hit a nerve in Prowl? The glare said he had, but he let the kid continue. "However... P-Perhaps we could compromise to start with first..?"

"I could go for a compromise." Lockdown decided to give the kid a break, though he surprised the victory smirk. There was only one thing that Prowl had to 'buy' patience and while Lockdown could take it by force, that would negate the point of making Prowl stay docile for the time being. To that end, he released the other's wrists and gave Prowl some room. "What do you have in mind?"

"I am willing to work at being able to handle more of this without starting to squirm away. All I ask is that when I do start to squirm, is that you back off, please. "

Lockdown nodded slowly with a small smirk. "All right, that's fair. What incentive do I have for letting you go?"

"You'd have the first payment sooner than later."

"Mmm...I can be patient. So, that's off the table." He looked around the room, quite obviously taking inventory of what Prowl had before turning back to the Ninja and pinning him with a look that had Prowl backing up. Lockdown didn't need scanners to know his pet was worried. "I prefer a material thing to ensure my behaviour. That holo-projector of yours would make a nice incentive."

"... Very well." Prowl opened a panel on his chassis and pulled it out. Lockdown blinked - he had been expecting a no at the least which he could have used to get another grope in- and took it stuck it in a subspace pocket until he could lock it away safely.

"You've bought my cooperation for now." He smirked playfully then stood with a stretch. "Now it's time for a new game to begin."

* * *

"Shockwave, report." Back on Earth, Megatron was amused in more ways than one. While the kidnapping of Bulkhead _had_ been thwarted, it'd only been a cover for his real goals. While the idea of a working spacebridge into the heart of Cybertron was all good and well, it was improbable the taking of Cybertron that way would have succeeded, even with his troop's superior firepower and strength. Oh, he knew his warriors had captured several, but they were for another purpose. One the Autobot's _didn't_ know about.

"All is proceeding according to plan, my liege. Shall I call agent Blurr back now?"

"No. Is he not here on Magnus's orders?"

"Very well." Shockwave's antennae flicked back slightly - Megatron noted some disappointment; he'd find out what it was at a later date- as he nodded his head. "Reports indicate the Elite Guard are mobilising more troops to patrol the colonies on the outskirts of our claimed space in response to the 'uprisings'."

"Pull the non-combatants back to New Kaon and the core worlds we hold." Bad enough that they ran regular checks (and _more_) in the 'name of keeping peace'. Megatron's optics burned at the thought of the Guard sending more troops 'upholding' it. While it was true his people _were_ warriors, one could not run an army without support forces - or what Decepticons called civilians - and he would not risk those lives. The Autobots called him a tyrant, but what he did was for the best of his people and they respected him for it. "Adults who wish to fight may, provided they are not carrying."

Shockwave nodded in understanding. No Decepticon in their right mind would risk a life not yet an adult, unlike Autobots. "The prisoners with them?"

"Task Barricade with the execution of all non-permanents. The warriors will follow only when they have the chance to lure some of the guard into traps. I want them alive."

"Yes, my liege. What of your forces there?"

"Send for the Stunticons and Blitzwing's mates."

Shockwave's optic widened but the spy nodded nonetheless. "Understood."

Megatron just smirked. Everything was proceeding as planned even with the hiccoughs along the way.

* * *

:3c given you won't get to meet Blitzwing's mates for several chapters, feel free to guess who they are. I have plans for Megatron yessss. *chinhands*


	4. Orders

**Orders**

**AN:** Jetfire and Jetstorm have been written using primarily the _Rise of Safeguard_ Comic and based on what I thought Starscream based coding could do. I also seem to be incapable of writing short chapters. :|

Only things I own are Earthbane and Bladeswitch.

**(Of orders and Decepticon humour.)**  
"Hey, bossbot, have you seen Prowl around? I thought he was due back from patrol now." Bumblebee asked as he and Sari -complete with icecream - made their way into the mostly empty base. "He was meant to switch over with me almost half a cycle ago. Come to think of it, I never saw him in the drama with Megatron either."

Optimus glanced over at the yellow mech with frown. Bumbleebee was right. They hadn't seen or heard from the ninja in several earth days and while it wasn't unusual for Prowl to vanish for a day or two, it was worrisome if the mech hadn't checked in via commlinks at least once. And with the recent attempted kidnapping of Bulkhead by Megatron - Thwarted thanks to Blurr who'd apparently been planetside since the Magnus's visit - less than half a terran day ago... This wasn't normal. Any mech with half a CPU could figure that much out. "No, I haven't. Have you tried comming him?"

"Yea. I go no answer." The yellow mech scratched his head. "Bulkhead and Blurr have gone out looking for him. Blurr seemed really agitated that he was missing."

"Yea, even after I said he could just be doing that meditating stuff that he does." Sari added.

"I think he almost blew a transistor."

Optimus made a noncommittal noise; He didn't get why Blurr would be agitated over Prowl going missing, but then again, given the repair crew had landed themselves the role of guardians/collectors of the Allspark and Megatron his lieutenants were here... Optimus resisted the urge to facepalm. Of course. Every member of the Earth based team had vital Intel that any Decepticon would want to get their servos on. Instead of giving into the facepalm urge, he grabbed the remote and started flicking through human news channels; the reporter-bots were normally pretty good at picking up anything interesting that would be going on. Hopefully they would give some clue as to what was going on. "It's not like him not to answer his comm, at the very least."

He opened a line to Bulkhead when nothing showed up on them, given he didn't have Blurr's comm signal - the speedster had taken off without giving it to them. "Any luck finding Prowl, Bulkhead?"

"Nope. I can't find him anywhere. Not even his signal. Though Blurr said he did get a faint reading of Decepticon activity earlier in the last two weeks. Let me ask him."

"Alright."

"Decepticon readings? But... I though the near kidnapping was the first time Megatron had surfaced in like, a week and half or something?" Sari's hand closed around the Key and Optimus looked down at the child. "But we did get my dad back so maybe..."

"That might be a problem then if Megatron's growing bold." Not exactly something Optimus wanted to deal with. The raids by the other Decepticons weren't exactly easy to deal with, but they'd managed more or less. It had helped the Decpeticons had seemed more interested in getting the metal than in fighting. His optics flickered to Bumblebee. "Go check his quarters. See if he just came back without reporting in or something."

"Gotcha."

"_Bulkhead and I are looking into the Decepticon blip. It appears to have originated in the city's outskirts. We will report back on what we find._"

"Uh right. Be careful Blurr." Optimus suddenly felt like he was out of the loop yet again.

"Nada in Prowls quarters.. all bare as well.." Bumblebee skidded back into the main rec area of the base, confused look firm only his face. "And I mean like there's nothing there, only one or two data pads and the organic stuff."

Optimus felt his spark sink a little at that. "Really? All of his training materials are gone as well?"

"Yea. Nothing of them was left." Bumblebee nodded. "If he was here, then he didn't want to be noticed.. for whatever reason. Man this is confusing."

"Well, Blurr and Bulkhead are investigating now." Optimus didn't know what to say or think. If the Decepticons had taken Prowl, then why were his belongings gone, too? That didn't just add up. It was too early to jump to conclusions without solid facts and he doubted that Megatron would have surfaced again so soon. Unless this was a revenge thing - which honestly did seem like something the Leader of Decepticons would do, as far as Optimus knew. But the missing belongings didn't fit into anything related to Megatron-style kidnapping.

The young Prime groaned.

"Hey, maybe Bumblebee and I can help?"

"I'd rather not, Sari. Not until we know if Megatron's behind this or not."

"But my dad...?"

"Alright. But keep in touch."

"We will bossbot."

* * *

"-and that's all we know, sir." Optimus finished, shoulders slumping.

Ultra Magnus nodded as he mulled the report from the young Prime over. With the Decepticons laying low - Magnus had no doubt in his mind that Megatron was simply biding his time with the terran crew - and Prowl having flunked out of his training, it ruled out the chances of the Ninja being taken simply because he was a Ninja. Optimus's indications that several of the natives had reported seeing Prowl being chased by a car that was most likely Lockdown backed Magnus's thoughts that Prowl hadn't gone willingly.

As for why the hunter would want Prowl it was likely to do with the mods Prowl had borrowed. Magnus wasn't even going to deal with that until he had Prowl himself for questioning. This wasn't even factoring in the whole other aspect to Prowl, but that wasn't known outside of himself, Jazz, Red Alert or Inferno; Yoketron had known but he'd been murdered (the vast supply of polymer he'd guarded stolen) and Prowl had flunked and vanished before they could assign him to another dojo. Magnus mentally pinched his nasal plate. "A team shall be sent out to track down Lockdown and Prowl. However, should Prowl have gone willingly, he shall not be returning to Earth, is that clear?"

Optimus kept himself from wincing and nodded. "I don't believe Prowl is a traitor, but, yes, sir, that's clear."

"Good. Magnus out." He cut the comlink, then turned to his crew with a heavy sigh.

"Jazz, extrapolate known trajectories Lockdown's ship may have taken from Earth. Sentinel, contact Blurr and have him conduct his own investigation into this." He ordered - a sharp look Sentinel's way cut the any protests the mech might have had - while he pulled up the data screens. He needed to send the best team to track and if possible, bring the Ninja back to Fort Max.

"Ultra Magnus, I want to be part of the team." Jazz had to be a part of that team, for more reasons than just being a Ninja.

"Very well. Take Jetfire and Jetstorm. This will be good training for them. They might be of better use than here." They couldn't exactly reveal them to the general population yet, or take them to Speed and introduce them to the surviving Autobot fliers - fliers who'd been carefully hidden way in the last stages of the Great War when they'd been developing Omega Supreme and listed as dead - hidden there. There were other reasons for assigning them to Jazz, too, but the Special Ops Ninja didn't need to know, yet.

"Thanks, Magnus." He turned back to the terminal and finished up with the data. "I've got a couple options, but one of them is an outpost the Combaticons normally use for trading and it's the closest."

Magnus pulled up the screen. Just what he needed. Hopefully they'd be elsewhere though, but he somehow doubted it. "You know the drill."

"Roger."

/_Jetfire, Jetstorm, get your gear together, men. We've got a mission._/ He commed the two of them as he pushed off from the console.

/_Coming!_/ One of the twins called. Jazz wasn't sure which one as they both sounded identical over commlinks. It didn't take them long to appear on the bridge of the ship, both eager for the mission. Jazz chuckled a bit; He couldn't blame them though, being coped up in Fort Max wasn't the best for fliers. At least they didn't have to deal with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe on top of it. That would have been... fun, to say the least.

"Let's get rollin'!"

"We are to be flying, sir." Jetfire shot back, missing Sentinel's scowl as he and his twin followed as the Ninja led the two of them down to the bay where the smaller shuttles - each fitted with a hyperspace-drive - were stored.

"We're goin' after a Decepticon bounty hunter, mechs. He's a real piece o' work, so keep your optics on him when we do find him."

"Bounty hunter?"

"Why we going after bounty hunter?" The twins played off each other, shoving and jostling a little as well as they followed Jazz and the ninja didn't mind the antics in the least. It was refreshing after the stuffy attitude of most of the mechs here (honestly he'd rather have all the Old Crew around him) and reminded him of the twin terrors currently assigned to Springer's command over at Polyhex.

He wisely waited until they were in the shuttle, unwilling to allow anyone not cleared for the mission to overhear. He input the coordinates for Swindle's outpost as he dropped down into the control chair while the ship booted up. "Think he mighta botnapped a friend o' mine. Our job's to see if that's true 'n see if we can bring him back."

Before anything happened went unsaid. Jetfire and Jetstorm shared a look.

"Why botnap a mech? Was thinking -"

"- Take trophies or such. Is not making sense."

"Prowl's got himself a pretty sweet advanced holomatter projector, but from what the terran team said, Lockdown's got some kinda _personal interest_ in him." Not to mention what _else_ was stored away the black and gold, but that was neither here nor now and thinking about it wouldn't ease _that_ particular punch to the face. Jetstorm and Jetfire didn't need to know anything other than what they were told either. The revelations about Prowl would only complicate things seven ways to Cybertron and given they'd been under Sentinel's command until recently... Jazz really didn't need that kind of thinking if he was going to work with them. "Prowl took a couple of his mods and Lockdown prob'ly don't like that much."

A serious look crossed the jets faces as they thought it out. Not for the first time was Jazz reminded of Starscream and he hoped High Command knew what they were doing when it came to Seeker things. Granted, they'd had more than the official listed mechs working on it so he figured they did. Finally Jetstorm spoke up, chin-handing as he did so, optics sharp, intelligent. "Is not making sense. Decepticon bounty hunters not know to take live. Only dead or in parts. "

"But brother, are not Decepticons sneaky?" Jetfire scowled twisting his fingers into claws and flexing them. But just it came, it was soon gone.

Jetstorm nodded. "Perhaps engagement of rules changed. Is not still not fitting known patterns."

Jazz nodded, agreeing with them at least when it came to the bounty hunter part. "Well, we'll have to get some more Intel before we can go around assumin' stuff. Prowl's a good mech."

"Where are we going?" Jetfire grinned and leaned forth, trying to get a look at the destination heading. When he couldn't get a good look at it, he leaned back in his seat with a slight sulk. "Sir, how we to be getting Intel? We are not Intel-bots."

"We're goin' to an outpost owned by a team called the Combaticons. They tend to set up shop there and keep a team of drones to handle the docking bays. They should have a record of who was there and how long, seeing as they like to put faces to the mechs that try to doublecross. As for Intel?" Jazz laughed before a smirk crossed his face. "Leave _that_ to me."

"Yes, sir." Both the twins had blank looks on their faces though. Jazz couldn't blame them; they hadn't exactly been taught various team names the Decepticons used. "What is our role?"

"Just keep an eye out for any member of the team." Jazz reached around and pulled up the file on them. "You learned about gestalts yet?"

"We know we are one, sir." Jetstorm said, looking at the file curiously.

"Good. The Combaticons are a five mech team: Swindle, Vortex, Blast Off, Brawl, and their leader Onslaught." Jazz pointed to each mech as he named them, voice tightening with hatred at the mention of Brawl. "They combine to form Bruticus, a big nasty slagger."

"That is ugly bot." Jetfire pointed at Brawl, making a face. Jazz just snorted in amusement. Ugly was one way of putting it.

"That is because we go against same one in simulation training, brother."

"One would think they be looking less ugly." Jetfire yelped when his twin wacked him over the head.

Jetstorm on the other hand nodded at the explanation - even as he bickered with his twin, memorising the faces and names. "We are avoiding, yes?"

"It is to be some effort if they are Great War old." Jetfire's optics seemed to bug out when he noticed that factoid.

"Yea. They didn't survive the war by being stupid and they don't like anyone messin' with their stuff, so it won't be easy as all that." Jazz knew he'd definitely have to keep the twins close at hand during this mission. The kids were good given they were only about a megatvorn and half old , but he didn't want them running into the Combaticons on their own - especially not if all five of them were there; there was a good chance of that as general where one Combaticon was, the rest soon appeared. "I'm hopin' if Lockdown did do some trading with them, they'll be too busy goin' over what they got to be paying too much attention on their own. If they leave security to the drone team, we have a much better chance of getting the Intel and leaving without a fight. Now, you kids go over that file. We got some cycles of hyperspace travel ahead of us."

They nodded in unison. "Yes sir."

* * *

"Earthbane."

"Tor?" The youngling - she was only thirty-six vorns old, not even an adult yet - that would come at her first megavorn of life - tank stared up at her creator.

"Have you got everything."

"Yea. 'Switch's is with the slave." The yellow and green tank pointed over in said slave's direction, the former sniper cringing when the black and white enforcer gave him a hard look. The tiny red and black sparkling in the slave's arms gurgled, waving at her sire. Barricade just nodded. He didn't have time to indulge his youngest.

"Good. You have the codes?"

"Yes, creator." Earthbane had them memorised three ways to New Kaon

"Your gun?"

"Yes." Earthbane twitched a bit. Really, of all the times for her dam to fuss. Her sire would have just shoved her out the door by now. "I won't shoot myself in the foot." Well, not _on purpose_ but she was still integrating targeting and war-build systems properly and figuring out what worked and what didn't.

"Good." Barricade was not fussing, not at all. He was simply making sure his known-to-shoot-self-in-the-foot creation was prepared in case things went drastically wrong. Ok no. He was fussing yes and he knew the warriors in his position would be as well. Sparklings and younglings registered to the military protocols as the only true civilians in Decepticon culture; something to be safeguarded until they could defend themselves, which was around the time they became an adult in Decepticon law.

He knew his youngling could defend herself- the femme was one of the top of her age range. Old enough to spar without anyone stepping in if things went south as they did in a third of cases, but young enough to be protected. Which was why he was sending her, her sister (and slave, but the once sniper was valuable property with more than one use.) with the rest of the non-combatants to the core worlds. He'd catch up with them at later date, hopefully with Autobot prisoners in tow.

"Stay safe." It was gruff, but he wasn't one for open, public affection - the only time he'd even done that was when Wildrider had been _drunk_, Motormaster had _dared him_ and there had been an orgy that Barricade still wasn't sure had been physically _possible_, but whatever - and a nod to the waiting escorts and the shocktrooper shoved his creations and property into their care, optics narrowed in warning, because like all Deceptcons, he was _possessive_ of what little he _had _to call his own.

Then he turned and stalked off to were his troops waited with the Autobots that were to be killed, malicious grin forming on his face. It was time for the _real_ fun, and he was going to enjoy this.

"Pike them."

He grabbed his first Autobot and claws dug into the metal of the throat as they skilfully hit _every single wire_ between metal and vocaliser. Along with several other tubes and so forth, but it didn't matter. The Autobot was going to die and he might as well have _some_ fragging fun. "Stupid thing."

A sharp yank, then the vocaliser was in his claws, still sparking and the wicked Decepticon held it up - and let what energon there was drip into his mouth in a disturbingly macabre way before tossing it aside and leaning in to _lick_ up the drops on the wound with a dark purr from his engine while the shellshocked Autobot just stood there like a petrorabbit in the lights or something.

The other Autobots made disgusted, distressed sounds as the battlefield rumours of Barricade drinking energon and fluid seemed to come true - though he could be doing it because he knew it grossed most Autobots out while his troops just laughed

There really was nothing like starting the megacycle with splatters of engeron, fluid and the screams of the dying as his claws closed in on the wound and his mechs got to work piking every single Autobot head.

They even left a nice, neat pile of bodies (most of them _mangled_ somehow) behind and trail of vocalisers for the Guard to find.

Barricade couldn't wait for the Guard to find _them _as then the party would be well and truly started.

* * *

*innocent whistle* Can you spot the foreshadowing here? :3c

As always, I love reviews and feedback; they're nice and help me gage how I'm doing in my writing and if I'm dragging things out to much and or things don't make sence. Though, with the D-con culture, it's like that for plot purposes. Reviews also help spot any weird things my beta didn't catch. :)

Now, I have seekers to wrangle and a fight or two to plan, amongst other things. *whistles the jaws theme.*


	5. Upgrades

**Upgrades**

**A/N:** Combaticons are G1 cartoon personalities and I'v switched my notes to the bottom.

Last of the batch of chapters I gave my beta when I first started posting this thing so I have no idea when the next one will go up. ^_^;.

**(Of outposts and Combaticons.)**

The station's name was the _Guided Light_, located in low orbit around a gas giant's icy moon about a hundred or so light years away from Earth and several thousand from Cybertron.

It also hung on the edge of Autobot-Decepticon space.

As they came in for docking, Lockdown grinned to himself when he noticed a few ships. Nothing too big, given how much the Autobots liked targeting anything bigger than his ship, but it was telling enough. _Technically_ the station was neutral as it didn't have an allegiance. In reality, it was the favoured grounds of the Combaticons - who last he'd heard had closed ranks around Swindle - who enforced the neutrality of the station; it made the more credits that way. Autobots considered it a Decepticon owned station simply because of who frequented it - and they treated it as such.

A glance back at Prowl and Lockdown smirked. "Looks like it's mostly Decepticons this megacycle, kid."

"I see."

"Good thing I painted your symbol out."

"Yes."

Lockdown sniggered at the Look he got. _Technically_ Prowl had done it, but Lockdown _had_ suggested it - purely so Prowl wouldn't stand out as much. He'd still stand out because of that signal though and Lockdown _wasn't_ going to change that any time soon. The truth behind the suggestion was yet another way to cut the kid's ties with the Autobots, too. "Well, you ready kid?"

He keyed the door open once Prowl nodded. "Word of advice. Don't let them bait you, 'cause I'm pretty sure they'll _try_."

Lockdown didn't wait for a response, just headed out, smirk firmly on his face and the only Decepticons about seemed more interested in 'facing than in the new arrivals and Lockdown mentally snickered at Prowl's aghast look. He'd forgotten how prudish Autobots _were_.

"That - the.."

"Hmm?"

"What was _that_?"

"Just some mechs getting a quick 'face."

"_In public_."

"Your point?" The way Lockdown saw it, it wasn't a big deal. Interfacing was apart of life, just like everything else was. Even so, the green and black muscle car kept Prowl in his peripheral vision given he could tell the kid was tense. It was to be expected given the building they approached wasn't just re-enforced but it bore what looked like several dents where a mech had been thrown (that wasn't counting the energon stains and scuff marks from various fights). They looked like weirdly shaped dents on first glance. On second glance, Lockdown snickered to himself.

He didn't pity whoever'd made them.

"That looks like it had to hurt."

"Possibly." Lockdown shrugged and tapped open the door with a simple code; one used on most neutral stations. The door hissed open and Lockdown headed with a confident stride, ignoring the mechs as they chatted away nor did he bother to shield his pet from the curious looks. With Prowl's symbol blacked out and the Autobot following close behind _without_ any chains, it meant any number of things to a Decepticon.

It wasn't hard to miss the distinctive shape of several Combaticons at the back of the place, though he had to bite back the grin on seeing Swindle half on half off Onslaught's lap. Onslaught himself was just looking over a data report as if having a mech half on him was nothing new. Vortex and Brawl were acting as bouncers. That left Blast Off and Lockdown would put his credits on the shuttle pulling security duties.

"How are you fine mechs doing this megacycle?" He stood across the table from the others and once he had Swindle's attention – who'd tactfully slid off his commander's lap -, continued. "I have some specific requests this time around, Swindle. Think you can handle it?"

"Depends if you can handle my price." The swindling arms-dealer steepled his fingers with the most innocent, trusting smile before his optics narrowed, flicking to Prowl who took a small step back.

"Who's your friend Lockdown?" Vortex leaned forward slightly, optics lighting up with eager anticipation as he caught the flinch from the Autobot. "He looks like fun. Lemme play with him."

"I can always handle your price, Swindle." Lockdown's optics flicked to Brawl and Vortex. "A new acquisition. None of your concern."

"Let's deal. What is it you want and how much are you willing to pay?" Swindle's optics lingered on Prowl for a few more kliks - recognition in them - before they flickered back to Lockdown.

"Got a good bit of Seeker parts and some Autobot processors. Found some interesting little toys in a research lab too." He put his hands on the table and leaned forward, ignoring Prowl for the moment. "I need my usual along with a couple sets of joints and parts for a ninja build."

"Ninja, huh? I like Ninjas. Their chassis bend so easy." Vortex muttered, just loud enough for Prowl to hear him while Swindle and Lockdown started the bargaining process as Lockdown pulled several nullrays, wing joints, and thruster parts out of subspace and dumped them on the table. But that wasn't interesting. What was interesting was the way the ninja had flinched but didn't say anything. The rotary couldn't see any scars that indicated a vocaliser being removed – he'd know, he'd done his share of removing them -, but with Lockdown, one never knew.

"Got these from Starscream's own labs, so you know they're good. The mech's nuts, but he knows how to build."

"I have to say, I am impressed." Swindle picked up the nullray, inspected it, then unsubbed some of the Ninja parts and dumped them on the table.

Vortex shifted closer when Prowl's focus shifted to the table. "I don't like being ignored, you know. It's _rude_ not to talk when someone's trying to _engage_ you in conversation."

Prowl ignored him as best he could, studying the parts. They weren't as good as what Jazz had, but they did look a few steps up from what he possessed. He didn't say anything though, determined to keep mute and not say a word to the Deception. He perked up somewhat when more parts were added to the table after some more negotiations, though his main interested was the silver shuriken.

"Like those, huh? Gotta wonder why Lockdown's outfitting a little piece of scrap like you. You don't even have your first upgrades and he's putting you in _these_?" Vortex shifted back a little bit, a thoughtful look creeping into his optics before morphing into a smirk at the twitch from Prowl. The rotary gave his frame a very obvious once over, delighting in the subtle squirms and twitches. Without seeing the mech in action, he couldn't tell if it was for his skills that Lockdown kept Prowl alive for or something else. "Ain't much to you at all, so it can't be _that_."

_/Any ideas?/_

_/I do have several.../ _Onslaught privately commed the other over the gestalt link._ /I believe that Swindle has a fairly good idea of who the new mech is./_

_/I saw that too. _Who_, but not what. We both know that Lockdown wouldn't drag an Autobot he'd caught off his ship for nothing./_ Vortex commed back. Even he'd noticed that Swindle was more distracted with the black and gold than the bargaining going on and distracting _Swindle_ in _the middle of a deal_ was a testament to just _how_ interesting the situation was. All of them knew somewhat about the other situation – Thanks to Brawl slamming the swindler into a wall out back a few times when Swindle had tried to _joke_ it off - that had humiliated him back on the dirtball, but not the mechs involved. Maybe this was a chance to find out more about _what_ had happened.

_/My conclusion would be that of a trophy of some sort. That much I am sure of. Perhaps a Ninja, if the upgrades are anything to go by. A young one if he's keeping it and not offering it for a hack./_ Onslaught said at last, optics flickering to his mate when he felt Swindle's excitement though both the spark and gestalt bond at the mention of processors.

_/He's almost gotta be./_ Vortex agreed as he snorted at the mention of Autobots trying to create more fliers. He knew they couldn't - the Decepticons had made sure of that and with all the Autobot fliers having died in the Great War - the likelihood of any Autobot ever flying again was slim. The neutrals wouldn't help them, not with how jealously they guarded their fliers_./I've seen frames like that before and there's only a few options for mechs that small./_

Granted, that was Decepticon thinking but even _those_ types of frames had uses outside of the carnal. Vortex could name several highranking warriors with such frames off the top of his helm and _none_ of them you wanted to mess with.

_/Indeed. Continue if you wish. The reactions are interesting./_ Onslaught lent back, crossing his arms over his chassis.

Vortex shifted forward again, a wicked grin forming behind his battle mask now that he had permission. "What's so interesting about you, hm? You've gotten everyone all up in arms. Makes me itch to dig into that little processor of yours and see what makes you tick. I've got the tools to do it right here." He let a sharp instrument slide down into the palm of his hand. It glinted threateningly in the light and Prowl took a step back. "You want to tell me yourself or am I going to have to work it out of you?"

Still, the Autobot said nothing. Huh. Maybe it really _was_ muted, if the jumpiness at being handled by its master was anything to go by. Pity. The interrogator would have liked to hear the Ninja's screams.

"Pleasure doing business with you. If you find interesting mods, give me a call."

"If you can pay the price." Swindle was all too happily turning over one of the processors, already thinking of ways to make more credits.

Vortex watched Lockdown and his pet leave - both ducking around a brewing fight at a table - before turning back to his gestaltmates, not even batting an optic when Onslaught growled and moved to deal with the fight; the slagger'd had it coming given it was the third time this cycle and Onslaught had _warned_ them they wouldn't be dealing with Brawl the next time.

Eh. It was entertainment and it'd kill time before he had to switch with Blast Off for monitor duty.

[[27 breems later…]].

"What. _Happened_. Out. There?" Onslaught's fist slammed against the wall of the station as his blazing optics looked over the rest of his battered team. They flinched back, knowing their brother - their unit leader's tempter was at an all time high. Not only had Onslaught been dragged into a fight that _should_ have been easy, but they'd been bested by a pair of barely mature Autobot _fliers_ and one lone Cyberninja. The fact the Cyberninja had been _Jazz_ didn't lessen the sting of defeat any less. It only added to it.

"How the _frag_ did the Autobots get _fliers_ and why didn't our spies know?"

"Exactly!" Vortex said, jumping on his teammates words while he went over the security feeds. "I was flyin' blind."

"They shouldn't have had fliers. They _don't_ have the coding for it; Silverbolt's team is _gone_, Skyfire _suicided_ if I recall correctly and we _know_ all traces of Autobot flier coding was wiped out at the end of the Great War too. We saw to that and _no_ neutral flier worth their struts would sign up to be an Autobot." Blast Off seethed, hands fisting then unfisting as he struggled to reign in his own tempter that the gestaltlink was amplifying.

Swindle growled, but his mind was three steps ahead of his brothers. "It's _not_ Autobot coding. Some of the scrap they pulled was _Decepticon_ tactics. _Starscream tactics_. They must have gotten their hands on the Seeker prince and he's going to _pitch a fit_ over this."

"Younglings should not be that strong. Decepticon coding or not." Blast Off leant against the wall. "Let him deal with it. Do we know _why_ they were here?"

"Yes. They were chasing Lockdown." Vortex pointed to a backup system that showed what data Jazz had copied. "Or the Ninja with him."

Four sets of optics turned on Swindle.

"Swindle. You knew him." Brawl loomed over his teammate now. If he couldn't fight the Autobots, then he'd beat the information out of Swindle. It'd make him feel better too.

"I wouldn't say I knew him -"

Brawl slammed his teammate into a wall with a growl, hand digging into the slightly smaller's shoulder struts, ignoring the squirms and hiss of pain. Behind him, the rest of the team crowded around.

"You _knew_ him Swindle." Blast Off pointedly reminded their arms-dealer.

"He's from the terran team."

"Same team that handed you over to _organics_."

"Yes...?" Swindle hissed when Brawl's fingers dug in. "Yes. Same team that _Megatron_ is toying with. I don't know how Lockdown got him. _Let me go_!" The end was punctuated by a fierce kick. He wasn't as strong as the others, but his kicks more than made up for it and Brawl's grip loosened enough that Swindle could drag in a needed intake of air and not feel like he was jarring every system he had then some. "His name was _Prowl_."

"You're slagging glitching me. I blew the fragger's spark in back when we still held _Nebulon_!" Brawl released his grip, though remained looming over Swindle as the mech drew in needed air to cool overworked systems.

Vortex just cackled while Swindle's grin turned feral after half a breem - even backed into a corner like he was, he was still a Combaticon -, matching Brawl's bristling temper as he continued. "Goldbug's also with them.. and so is _he_. But Megatron's toying with him so he's out of the question. Ratchet's babysitting them all but by the looks of it... his babysitting is lacking."

"Goldbug? But didn't Snaptrap-"

"Do I look like I know?"

Vortex had to give Swindle that. "So, when do we head there?"

"When Megatron calls us there. It is only a matter of time." Onslaught gave them all a stern look. "Vortex, hail Lockdown. I think that we all have a few words to say to the terran-bot as we tell him about the tail he has."

Vortex smirked as he keyed in the codes, Swindle standing beside him, rubbing the struts where Brawl had gripped.

"What can I do for you, Swindle?" Lockdown asked smoothly once he came onto the screen,

"I'll cut to the chase. We had Elite Guard _visitors_ soon after you and that slave left Lockdown. We thought that you'd want a heads up on this fact." Swindle sneered, not bothering to call the Autobot anything other than what it really was. Vortex tried to peer around the other to see if said slave was near enough or even in view. He couldn't see anything, but that didn't mean that Lockdown wasn't blocking the view.

Lockdown tapped his chin thoughtfully. "That was fast. I didn't expect them to come after us for a few cycles yet. I can assume they didn't leave in one piece?"

"They left in one piece because they somehow _copied Starscream's flier tech and made fliers_!" Swindle all but snarled, rather sore about getting no good fight. "They, and the Ninja with them, escaped while we were merging to Bruticus."

"**_What_**? You'd think they'd fragging _learn_." Lockdown partially snarled into the screen, and behind him, something black and gold flinched back.

"They are Autobots. What the slag do you think? Anything that can be used against us _is_. _You know that_." Swindle hissed, drawing in an intake to steady himself, hands slowly unfisting as he struggled to control his anger at a larger situation that he couldn't buy or talk his way out of.

"What ninja? If he was Elite Guard, that leaves a few different mechs..."

"_Jazz._"

"Jazz, huh? They must really want Prowl back then." Lockdown's optics flicked to the side before he grunted at something too soft to catch over the commlinks.

"I wonder _why_. It's listening, isn't it?" Vortex shoved Swindle to the side in hopes of getting the mech to rise to the bait and show himself.

"I don't like to let him run around the ship unattended. He tends to get into all kinds of trouble on his own."

Vortex leaned forward, putting his hands on the console. "Somehow I'm not surprised."

"Stop hiding it." Blast Off growled from off-screen. "It's a terran bot. Let us see it."

Lockdown smirked and soon enough a rather disgruntled Ninja was dragged onto the bounty hunter's lap. Though, the disgruntled look shifted to an uncomfortable one when Lockdown rested his chin on the ninja's head, cruel smirk splitting his faceplates. That wasn't even taking into account where the hook rested and Swindle snickered. _Loudly_.

Vortex clenched his hands into fists, though the thought they'd interrupted Lockdown's _playtime_ was an amusing one. Oh well. The Ninja was in view now. "Listen here you pile of worthless junk. Next time I see you, you better be ready to _beg to Primus for mercy_. Your master won't always be around and a reject model like you won't be a challenge at all."

"Yea. Little scrap like you ain't a challenge at all for us, you know? Though.. that yellow one - Goldbug -"

"Bumblebee." Prowl corrected though there was a flicker of confusion in his optics.

"I'll call that slag pile what I want, Autobot." Swindle snarled, optics narrowing. "The yellow one though... Oh _we have plans for that one_."

"Ohh. It speaks at last?" Blast Off mocked, still off screen. "Though you was _muted_, scrapling."

Vortex held up his energon stained claws, optics glinting. Though he couldn't actually do anything through a screen, the black and gold's flinch was nice. Refreshing. It was how an Autobot _should be_, cowed, scared, trembling. Fearing what a Decepticon could do to it. His battlemask retracted to show the cruel grin on his face. "I'll peel your plating off piece by piece. You'll be begging me to _kill_ you by the time I'm finished, you hear me?"

"Hmmm.. and I'll sell your parts off to the highest bidder as they come off." Swindle openly laughed and Vortex could tell the arms-dealer was enjoying it. Not to the level that Vortex did of course, but it was enjoyed nonetheless.

The rotary laughed at the flinch the words got. "Lucky for you though, we're not in the business of stealing another's _property_."

Oh, they could if they wanted - and Lockdown knew it - but there wasn't any fun in that and it would have been a hollow victory with nothing proved other than one was too cowardly to take what they wanted without a fight.

"Do you have anything else worth hearing? I was in the _middle_ of something."

"Move into Decepticon space and go in deep. It will hide your trail to the Elite guard." Onslaught cut in though optics flickered to Prowl. "Either they're wanting to bring you in, or you have something _valuable_ enough to warrant _Jazz_ being sent after you."

Lockdown nodded, optics flicking thoughtfully to the tense Ninja on his lap. "I'll keep my optics open for anything interesting to pay you back with. For now... "

The bounty hunter smirked, openly groped Prowl's thigh vent and closed the connection, leaving the Combaticons to their imaginations.

* * *

*Cackles.* You won't get the other side of the LD/P scene for another chapters. Several more factoids about the D-cons here and _everything_ revealed in this chapter is plot-pointy and or foreshadowing so take your pick. Also, if anyone can guess some of the reveals, I'll do a Dystopia!Verse drabble of your choice because I can't draw robots and I doubt anyone wants human!formers art. Also, if there's anything you guys want to see in the fic, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Anyway, next chapter will be all about jets. Possibly Starscream, if he decides to come out of his boltholt. *jaws theme*

Thoughts, comments and feedback on the fic is loved. I really do value everyone's thoughts and comments.


	6. Fliers

**Fliers**

Direct tie-in with 'Clipped wings' from the Fallen Soldiers arc. I do recommend reading it to fully grasp the impact of Starscream's denial.

Timeline, measurement units and other locations this is post can be found on my profile.

**(Of denial, panic and special ops)**  
[[_Earth; Around the time Lockdown visits the _Guided Light]]

"Tell me, are they _active_?"

Trapped (_bound_ to the ground) as he was in Mixmaster's cement, Starscream, Prince of Vos and Lord of the Skies could only stare in _horror_ at the situation _he'd_ gotten himself into, where Megatron's canon was pointing and just _what_ the tyrant was asking. Which should _not_ have been asked, if it wasn't for Thundercracker running his mouth off about how Dirge's trine wasn't worthy to fly in the slipstream of _his_ trine.

Yes, Starscream was going to kill the blue clone, painfully once he was free from this mess.

Megatron nudged Skywarp and the coward-clone squealed in fear. Starscream glared daggers at him - **it** -and the clone quailed under the Prince's glare.

"_YES_!" His intakes hitched as Megatron seemed to consider his answer, nudged the canon against Thundercracker this time and Starscream struggled, optics wide as unbridled fear coursed though him - **NOT AGAIN** -

No! They were just _clones_. They were _not_ his long gone trinemates. They meant _nothing_ to him. Megatron's knowing, smug smile _was about nothing_ because he was wrong. There was o possible way. He'd felt them _die_ - he'd suffered the white hot agony of losing his trinemates - the Seeker clamped down on his errant thoughts and emotions, glaring up at the tyrant who seemed to be taking cruel amusement from the display. Starscream lifted his head, jaw set for the loss he _thought_ he knew would come. After all, it was only a matter of time before the one that _dared_ to chain a Seeker exterminated the clones. Clones that Starscream had created in the vain hope of _killing_ Megatron and then assuming the mantle of Decepticon ruler (because he could). Instead he'd walked right into a trap and now this had happened and the world **_HATED HIM_**.

Maybe he was really was a big as glitch as the blue clone -

**NO**. He was _Starscream_, Lord of the Skies. The world just hated him right now, that was all. No, really, it did if it had planned such an elegant trap and oh Allspark he sounded like his Sunstorm clone. _Ugh_. "Yes. _Yes_, they are active."

"I don't believe you."

"What?" That was not his world falling out from under him, not at all. No way. Never. Only it was and he knew it as the canon nudged Skywarp again and the clone screamed this time, trying to _hide inside _Thundercracker only to be dragged off by Megatron. Thundercracker bristled and Megatron simply shot the ground in front of the blue clone. At least the egomaniac had the sense to back down, even if Starscream swore his spark skipped several thrums. "I don't _know_ how to _prove_ it!"

"Yes, you _do_." Dirge sauntered over to him and the Seeker Prince glared at the female clone. "Just open them up and show him."

"No." Just because _she_ opened her chassis to the first mech that asked - it had been _Ramjet_ of all clones -didn't mean he was like that. "I'm not a two bit pleasure model."

Right?

Yes, of course. He as better than all of them -

... he was having an argument. In his head. _Again_.

"I am a _Seeker femme_, not a pleasure model. I wouldn't want you for _my_ harem anyway." The teal femme made a face and Starscream glared. Like he'd ever submit to being part of a femme's harem! The short megavorns with Twistwind didn't count and she'd gotten shot down in the Great War anyway.

"Do I need to summon the _DJD here_, Starscream?" Megatron's smirk was down right predatory. Starscream froze as memories of his time in Tarn's hand's flooded his mind, along with the pain of the relentless attempts to extinguish his mutant spark.

"_No_. You don't need to do that. I'll open them. Let me out." He knew that it wouldn't be for him they'd come, _but his clones_ and he'd rather not risk them to painful deaths. **He** was the only one allowed to end their miserable lives if and when he wanted. That was all. Really.

Maybe he could nullray Megatron in the back and flee with his clones. Back to Vos and his Seekers sounded like a good idea. Well, there was the whole issue of not shooting his tri - his coward clone, but he would deal with that.

"Mixmaster."

Starscream twitched as the goop was melted way - just enough for the spark plates to move and Megatron tapped Skywarp. The coward whimpered. Starscream ground his denta in fury but opened the sparkplates. "There, see? They are active and bound to _clones_."

Thundercracker wisely kept silent, even as Skywarp was shoved at him, though Starscream didn't miss the flicker of concern. But _that_ was simply because of the trine protocols that dictated Seekers care for a trinemate because there was no way the egomaniac would otherwise be concerned. He'd said so himself!

"So I see." The smile turned deadly as the canon aimed at Thundercracker and Skywarp. "I don't need you _sane_ to control the Seekers."

Starscream's optics widened as _pure terror_ washed over him and for a moment, phantom agony washed over him and threatened to devour him. He scrambled for the edge of sanity, mind pulling up a myriad of ways Megatron could kill his clones given the tyrant couldn't kill him.

"Megatron - I - Please!" Slag slag slag slag it all he had _not_ created them just to die and by the looks on their faces, they were both equally terrified. Actually, Skywarp looked like he'd sprung several oil leaks and had several spark attacks then some.

"Yet I won't, as long as you _obey_ me."

"Of course, Mighty Megatron."

Megatron's smile was chilling. Starscream grit his denta then bowed his head, affirming his loyalty, for _now_, to the tyrant.

"Free him."

Once he was free from the cement, Starscream bowed, keeping optics locked on Mgatron, though there was tenseness in his frame that belied his fear. "My wing and I shall over se-"

"No. You shall stay on Earth and assist Blitzwing and Lugnut in collecting the requite metal to finish the Nemesis's repairs."

"Of course, Megatron." Starscream straightened, hiked his wings up, motioned to his two errant clones then stalked out. Hopefully the Stunticons, Astrotrain and Tankor would arrive soon, though he wasn't looking forward to Astrotrain and Blitzwing in the same place, even with Tankor acting a grounding anchor for the triplechangers.

No matter.

Megatron might think he cared for mere _clones_ - they weren't his trinemates, not matter what was said - but the Seeker Prince was just...just biding his time.

_That was all.  
_

* * *

[[_Twenty breems after Lockdown left the station_.]]  
The shuttle was Special Ops. Designed to look normal, but made to get teams to where they _needed_ to be as soon as possible. A hop though a spacebridge had helped, but it was still the shuttle's hyperdrive doing most of the leg work. (They might have had a spacebridge network but it wasn't all encompassing, a fact that Jazz lamented right about now.)

Jazz was currently lounging into the control chair - having just flipped the shuttle's cloak on - while he read up on the mission specs. The _real_ mission specs. It wasn't anything he hadn't done before, but it was still nice to know your mission inside out, especially if you were the _head_ of Autobot special operations (something that he knew Sentinel would bitch about if he ever found out that Outback Prime was just a figure head). Which is why he'd taken the perfectly unassuming shuttle so they'd get there several cycles earlier than expected, even with the aid of a spacebridge. Hopefully, it'd allow them to actually _catch_ Lockdown and grab Prowl back, but he wasn't optimistic enough on that, given the mech did have almost ten cycles lead time on them. At least the station they were heading to was fifteen cycles via hyperspace from Earth.

The trip was still long, even if travel time had been cut from ten to five cycles. It was also boring and allowed his mind too much spare time to wonder to could have beens, would have beens.

To what he'd almost had. To what he'd _lost_.

He cycled his intakes and scrubbed a hand over his face. Frag. Just when he thought he'd managed to _bury_ that part of his past. At least with Optimus that one time he'd been expecting it, thanks to Ratchet's reports.

"Sir? Are you..?"

"'M fine, Jetstorm. Just thinking." More or less. A glance over the twins showed Jetfire was still napping, sprawled out in his chair like only a young mech could do.

"About?"

"This and that. Mostly you guys." An easy lie. Funny how _easy_ it was to lie these days.

Jetstorm blinked at his commander and Jazz laughed. "Nothing serious. Just about what I read in yer files an' how cranky Sentinel prob'ly is over me 'stealin' ya away'."

"I see." Jetstorm nodded, not seeing at all, but Jazz had to give the kid some credit for trying. "It was interesting?"

"Yea. It was a cool read." Jazz grinned at the headtilt. Score for him over literal minded mechs. "So. You memorized the target area?"

"It is to be difficult mission but is possible."

"Anythin's possible if you put yer mind to it, ya dig?."

"I am digging." Jetstorm nodded. It was still a strange word to use for understanding, but then again, Jazz was a strange mech.

"Good. Wake your brother as we're in range to glide in." The special ops sat up as he keyed the shuttle to settle into a loose orbit around the icy moon. They could see the station. It wasn't more than several hundred meters away. A good distance, but given Jazz had two fliers on his side, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Yes, sir."

While Jetstorm roused his twin, Jazz grabbed the jetpack that would allow him to glide in with the twins. It wasn't much, but it was something and he didn't like the idea of getting a piggyback unless he couldn't avoid it. Once it was on and both twins were up and ready, he led them to the exit hatch.

"Stay close and if things get dicey, you guys split and get back to the ship, understand?"

"..Yes, sir."

Jazz did not miss the look both shared, nor the way how they seemed to hesitate, but he'd deal with that later. It was likely to do their training under Sentinel and again, not something was needed in special ops teams as everyone was trained to survive if they were left behind. It wasn't a pleasant thought and Jazz tried not to leave anyone behind, but things happened. He'd also given the order as he didn't know how they'd react to be separated in the heat of a real battle (they hadn't been shunted though the mental training like other linked teams – something that Jazz intended to _fix_) so it was better to have them retreat if things heated up. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that, but he'd learned long ago to cover his bases when dealing with twins.

Still, he was hoping for a nice, easy mission as he opened the hatch and activated the jetpack, hearing the sounds of two jets following as he lead them to the station. Allspark, but his spark did jump just a fraction before his CPU kicked in and he dampened the signals – one Autobot and two a mix of Decepticon and Autobot. The processor over matter trick wouldn't work for long, but it would, hopefully, work long enough for what they needed to do.

Once they touched down on the outer rim of the station - it wasn't a wide rim, no more than twenty rods wide - Jazz led them quickly and silently to the docking bay some thirty rods away, keeping them low and in the shadows as his white paint wasn't exactly made to blend in; neither was Jetfire's colours but he wasn't one of Cybertron's elite for nothing. They managed to make it to the terminal building without notice. A motion to the twins to keep alert and Jazz hacked the lock, expertly avoiding setting off the programming that would alert the base to a breach in this area. Nasty stuff, but it was expected of Decepticons when it came to security. Once it was open, he gave it a scan them slipped in, heading straight for the terminal, motioning for the jets to follow him.

_/Keep your blasters on the door. It's one way in, one way out, and we don't want to get stuck in here./_

At the confirmation, he turned to the terminal. A hand over the keypad and a jack slide out from his wrist; normally he'd take the time to do it without the cable since it ran the risk of leaving a sort of 'thumbprint' of him in the terminal's memory. This way was faster and could make all the difference in catching up with Lockdown before he vanished into Decepticon space. At the confirmation he was in the system, he started to pull up the files from the last few cycles; both of the docking bay and inside the buildings. He glossed over feeds until he found one of Lockdown. A quick cross-reference of the number on the feed was all it too find the other's ship – and several images of Prowl. Jazz's spark twisted in it's casing in anger. At least the young Ninja didn't appear to be hurt, but that meant _squat_ when it came to Decepticons. He copied all the Intel into his own banks so he could dissect it later and started backing out. _/Got what we need. Lets get out of here, gentlemechs./_

The twins nodded – Jazz noticed that Jetfire was twitchy and mentally counted to thirteen. It was the kids' first mission like this so it was understandable. At least Jetstorm appeared to be coping better. _/Keep it together you too./_

/_We are trying, sir._/

/_Right. What's it look like outside?_/

He knew, having run a scan himself, but he wanted to give them a confidence boost. Wouldn't hurt them.

_/We seem to be clear to get out./_ Jetstorm relayed slowly and Jazz could tell he wasn't sure of his own observation, but it was the first time out of the Sim Training that he'd had to do this so it was understandable too.

_/Then let's get while the gettin's good./_ He carefully eased out of the building – making sure to relock the door once everyone was out -, keeping himself between the pair that followed him – flanked him really which was odd, but again likely had to do with the Seeker coding. Jazz wasn't complaining right now, either. Again he took to the shadows, keeping the twins close to him as they moved, trusting Jetstorm to keep Jetfire calm. Once they were on the ship then they could let off some steam or whatever but now? No.

Not unless they _wanted_ to be caught and he couldn't afford for his attention to be divided, so he did his best to block out the twins' nervous jitters. He wasn't sure if he should take the lack of interference as a good thing or not, but he wasn't going to let anything catch them off guard if he could help it. They made it out of the docking area, but were still a little too close to get off the station undetected.

But even the most careful made mistakes and just because there didn't appear to be drones around, didn't mean they weren't there and nobody had bothered to look for any cameras that might not be on the main network – but they'd had _no reason to_ as the Combaticons weren't known to use them and the station had once been neutral. It would have been hell to re-wire. It must have been only a few rods past the outer doors when someone opened fire on them from above. Jazz's field flared with the fight or flight response as Jetfire _jerked_, flamethrowers kicking on automatically as he returned fire.

On _Vortex_ of all mechs and Jazz had to tackle the twin to the ground with a shout while the rotary just cackled with laughter, doing an easy spin in the air as he circled.

So much for an _easy_ mission. Well, they could retreat and fight at the same time.

_/Transform and keep him away from me while I get this data uploaded to the ship./_ It would only take a breem or two but in the time he'd be vulnerable as most of his attention would be elsewhere.

The twins nodded and took to the air with delight. Vortex just laughed as he avoided the shots from them. Jazz did his best to ignore the (admittedly one-sided) fight overhead, knowing that the twins would, hopefully, run rings around the rotary given his alt mode wasn't fast as the twins. Of course, that was assuming the mech wouldn't realise the fliers were limited by Jazz and the orders to defend him. This, on a realistic scale, wasn't going to happen unless he was lucky as hell. Decepticons picked on what weakness they could find; that was the universe truth as far as Jazz _knew_ it.

"Come back and play, microbots! Or are you too scared to play with the big mechs?"

"We are not scaredy 'bots!" Jetfire hissed, and then rolled, dodging the fire from Vortex.

"Then come and take it like a real 'bot!"

Jazz glanced up in time to see it and he blinked. That... was a little too much like Starscream's own moves. But, they'd likely picked it up from the sims. But then Jetfire was charging Vortex who'd unleashed a hail of fire that had clipped one of Jetstorm's wings.

Vortex just hovered in place, waiting, watching, radiating the smugness of a glutted predator playing with his prey.

Too late did Jazz realise what was happening and cursed as Vortex neatly avoided the charge, transformed then landed heavily onto Jetfire's chassis with a growl of triumph. His sharp claws dug into the thing metal of wings and tarted to peel one off as Jetfire hissed and bucked, anything to get the Decepticon off. Vortex just clung with a crazy giggle, working his claws deeper into the wing before tearing it off completely. Jetfire transformed into root mode mid-air, optics narrowed with an ugly snarl on his face before it morphed into a wicked, wicked grin.

It was a grin worthy of Starscream.

There was a moment of silence then Jetstorm slammed, pede first into the Combaticon's faceplates, grin mirroring his brother's as rage flooding him. At the same time, Jetfire kicked back and tore himself free from the grasp as they shared a look before the conversion to Safeguard started. It only took a few kliks then Safeguard started to lay into the Decepticon with a snarl.

Jazz tore himself away from the rather one-sided fight as Blast Off strafed them while Brawl took a potshot. Safeguard turned it's - his - attention away from Vortex to take shots at the Combaticons- who fired on Jazz (Safeguard growled and hiked his wings up) to keep him at a distance. Only Blast Off could truly read what the Autobot was saying with his body language and it was _hilarious_, if not down right sad. Poor thing. Oh well it'd soon be out of it's misery - grouped together -

"No.. NOT getting away." Safeguard followed after Vortex with a snarl, Decepticon and Seeker coding egging him on as the battle rush surged though both his halves. They strafed the Combaticons with gunshots and flame fanned by wind.

Jazz tensed as the Combaticons started to merge at Onslaught's order.

/_Get us the slag out of here before they can finish combining!_/

/_On it!_/

Jazz got to his feet, jumped and scrabbled for a hold on Safeguard when the combiner passed them. Safeguard stalled for a klik then kicked into overdrive, though the added weight slowed them down somewhat. He was still fast enough to be out of range by the time Bruticus formed. The giant gestalt roared in fury as the way-to-similar-to-a-Seeker combiner jetted away, back to the shuttle.

Thankfully, it was still cloaked and once they landed, Safeguard split back into the twins, both of whom looked ragged, but determined to stay online until they were away from the blasted station. Jazz nodded once, closed the hatch then made his way to the controls and programmed in coordinates for the nearest Autobot outpost. Autopilot engaged, the cyberninja turned back to the twins. He knew some basic first aid, so he started staving off the energon flow from their worst wounds, starting with Jetfire. "You two did good out there for yer first battle."

Jetstorm grinned, though it was weak. "Was fun."

"They dirty fighting and targeting weakness. Especially rotor-bot."

"Con's'll do that. Just be glad we booked it when we did. Bruticus is a mean customer." He finished up doing the basic patches - There wasn't much he could have done, but it would last until they reached the outpost about a cycle away. He could have gone back to Cybertron, but that was at least five cycles + spacebridge away and that missing wing needed to be looked ASAP - and got some energon for them. "Let's get you two re-energized. The med-bot at the outpost will have my head if I let you two walk around like ya are."

He wasn't kidding either. Most medics were a force to be reckoned with.

"We will have to get better." Jetfire said, taking the offered energon with a nod. "To take on Decepticons."

"Outpost?" Jetstorm blinked, then blinked again. "Are we not top of secret?"

"Mech, you're missin' a wing. I think Magnus will let this one slide. But," Jazz held up a hand to forestall any protest about him _not_ following the Chain of Command. "Let me contact Magnus, see what the boss-bot has to say."

"Okie for dokie."

Jazz grinned and slid back into the control chair. A quick key-in of his access codes to Magnus' direct line latter -

"Yes, Jazz?" Magnus' optics flickered in surprise at the damage done to the ninja and the twins. ".. Problems, I assume?"

Jazz gave his commander a sheepish grin. "Weren't quite as careful as we could have been, I guess. Had a direct run in with the Combaticons. Safeguard got us out of it. Got the data we needed, though. I haven't had time to sort through it all yet, cause I've been patchin' the kids up."

"Who?" Magnus' optics flickered to the twins in the background before he nodded.

"Jetfire got a little too close to Vortex and he started tearing at his wings, and that didn't sit too well with 'Storm. Safeguard seemed to have a go at Blast Off too, when he shot at me."

"I see."

"Are we cleared to go to the nearest outpost for repairs, or should we return to Cybertron? I got 'em patched up enough that they won't be offlinin' any time soon, but they need a medic ASAP."

"A code's being transmitted now."

Jazz stored the codes and nodded. "I've got some bots in the outpost we're heading to that can keep a secret. Thanks, sir. Do you have any further orders for us?"

Magnus's lips quirked in something of a smile. "You have your orders, Jazz."

Once the commlink was cut Jazz turned back to the twins with a grin. "Go get some rest. Outpost is a cycle away by hyperspace."

"Yes, Sir."

* * *

This chapter was a pain to write and ended up getting rewritten twice. Also first time writing Animated Starscream, who is a pretty basket case of issues that are fun to poke at.

Note on the female Starscream's name: when I originally planned Dystopia, she didn't have a canon name and Slipstream's been given another role further into the story.


	7. Disgust

**Disgust**

**A/N**: Timeline of chapters, Units of measurements used and other locations this fic is found have been added up on my profile. I've also gone back over the previous chapters and fixed up a few minor grammatical errors.

Thank you to everyone who's reviewed. It always makes my day when I know someone has enjoyed it.

**(On the finer points of his choice.)**

Once the connection to the Combaticons was cut, Prowl wasted no time in digging an elbow into the Decepticon that held him, disgust, fear and _panic_ working their way into his processor. It only grew into dread that sank into an unsettling knot in his tanks when Lockdown chuckled and his grip tightened as the hook strayed up his inner thigh. Prowl tensed with a whimper – a pathetic whimper that was half choked back - then the hook was gone - folded away so his other hand was usable - as the grip relaxed. Not enough that Prowl could wriggle free, but enough that it was... Comfortable.

As comfortable as it could be given Prowl wanted _away_ and Lockdown appeared to want him right where he was.

"_What was that_?"

"Decepticon politics. Get used to it kid."

"Get used to being a _slave_." Prowl couldn't keep the venom out of his voice _nor_ did he want to. _Everything_ he'd been told about Decepticons had just been _confirmed_ it seemed. Which meant Lockdown had been _lying_ to him about everything and Prowl had stupidly, naively trusted him - fallen for the Deception's words hook line and sinker and now it was _too late_ to flee. "I belong to_ no-one_, Lockdown."

"Wrong." Lockdown's grip tightened and Prowl didn't even try and stop himself from struggling. The struggling went nowhere though as Lockdown growled into the Ninja's audio. "You belong to _me_, kid. You _agreed_ to it. You planning on backing out of the deal?"

"I-" Panic bubbled up in his processor when the grip on him shifted, turning into something that he really did not want to think about and he shook his head rapidly, intakes struggling to pull in cool air. Only when Lockdown adjusted his grip it wasn't as blanet a threat did the panic even start to begin to subside. "O-Of course not."

"A _pet_ is a step _up_ from a slave and means you get some _choice_ about your fate. Not a lot, but you have some."

"No." No no **no** this wasn't happening. Prowl knew it was _stupid_ to allow panic to overtake him but as seemed to the be theme around Lockdown, all of his logic circuits seemed to want to crash, or surrender to his emotional side. Which was panicking.

"Unless you'd rather be an unclaimed Autobot in Decepticon space." Lockdown's voice turned cruel. "Those are free game and not everyone is as nice as me.."

"_What_." Prowl felt his spark run cold.

"Means anyone can swoop in and claim you."

"I –You- You – Let me _go_!"

Prowl thrashed, kicked and squirmed, but try as he might, Lockdown held him in place, optics cold, cruel as they watched the Ninja exhaust himself. over the course of several breems. Prowl glared at the floor, hating himself, _hating_ how _easily_ he'd been _tricked_ into agreeing to a life of _slavery_, of servitude. The fact Lockdown didn't bring up the _other_ choice he'd had back on Earth was…somewhat comforting, but – he was a Decepticon. That threat likely was a standing one and Prowl swallowed, hard. "Lockdown you said –"

"Yea, about that…" And Prowl swore his spark stopped when Lockdown's grip only tightened again. "You're right. You don't appear to belong to anyone. We have to fix that."

"Wha.. I...How?" Prowl did not like the direction - or the change of conversation- this was going in at all but the grip he was in was ironclad and he really didn't have much wriggle room anymore.

"Decepticons use two types of collar to mark what they own."

Yep. Prowl did _not_ like this topic already (at least it wasn't about interfacing). But with Lockdown holding him in place there really was no way he could escape – or get enough focus up to try anything related to circuit-su or such. - Wait say _what_? "Two?"

"Yea. The slave collar's anchored to the primary spinal cables. Shock collar and also stops transformations."

"And the other...?"

"Simple collar. Seamless once on and won't come off without the correct code. Allows for transformations and stuff like that, too."

"There doesn't sound like much difference between them." Because no, seriously. Decepticons were _brutes_. Why would they even have two types. That didn't fit with what he knew.

Lockdown grunted, shifted his grip then called up a file onto the screen after a few kliks of fiddling. Prowl didn't even want to know why he had the files in the first place. He simply studied the pair of collars. One was the standard issue bulky type that seemed to have attachments and Prowl pointedly did not think of what those could be used for. Bad enough the Decepticons seemed to think _interfacing_ in public was **_ok_** (he didn't even want to know what they thought of the **_strictly_**_-controlled-by-the-council_ spark to spark style) – but Prowl refused to let his CPU wonder. The other was thin and delicate looking. It didn't seem to be practical when it came to a race of warriors – until he read the notes and he baulked. Both were shock collars, both programmed to shock if any attempt at removing them was made. Both opened only to the correct key and energy signature of the one who owned the mech who wore either.

Both could be programmed to deliver _lethal_ doses of electricity.

"The thin one doesn't appear Decepticon style."

"Decorative _and_ functional. Like some of our femmes." Like Thunderblast or the one with Tarn's group, though more Thunderblast. Not that Lockdown would ever say that to their faces. He _did not_ have a death wish when it came to femmes and perceived insults.

"…Decepticon femmes?"

"Mmm. One third of High Command is made up of them."

"I was under the impression that Decepticon Femmes had been wiped out."

"What we wanted you think."

Well, that made sense, in a twisted sort of way.

Prowl swallowed and forced himself to relax into the Decepticon that held his freedom on a leash. He knew that somehow before the end of this cycle he'd be wearing a collar so it was rather pointless to fight what you couldn't prevent. Didn't mean he had to like it or stop beating himself up for getting into this mess in the first place. "Was everything you said, before...?"

"Frag no. I mean what I said." Lockdown nuzzled his ninja slightly, ignoring the flinch from Prowl as he turned off the screen. "My world _is_ a harsh place though kid and yer an Autobot. Talk like that? you'll hear a lot."

"..And the groping?"

"They'll assume I'm fragging you senseless."

Prowl shivered. _Not_ a mental image he wanted in his CPU thank you you very much. Decepticons had some sort of _vile fixation_ on interfacing.

Lockdown chuckled. "Don't worry. I _will_ wait."

"Of course." Prowl glared at the wall. Between a rock and a hard place and he'd foolishly _allowed_ himself to get into the situation almost willingly. Not good. _Not Good_ and _if_ Lockdown was telling the truth then he couldn't just flee and hope to Primus that he made it out of Decepticon space and back to the Autobots because _realistically_ the chances of that were slim. That wasn't adding what his frame looked like to Decepticon optics and the fact that he wouldn't stand a chance against most Decepticons when it came to hand to hand.

Then there was the fact he was a Ninja.

He could do the maths and it wasn't in his favour.

"I wasn't lying when I said you had potential either." Lockdown changed tacks and Prowl relaxed somewhat. "Once we've got your upgrades in, we can get you better training materials. I _might_ even be able to set up some personal training with an old friend, though I haven't talked to him for vorns. Sixshot _owes_ me a few favours anyway."

"Sixshot?"

"A Ninja. Greatwar hero-"

"Decepticon's don't _have_ heros!"

"According to Autobots. To _us_, they are the _epitome_ of a good solider. Maybe I'll introduce you to the hero of the Beast Planet that _single handedly_ held off the Wreckers by _himself_? Pretty sure the _General_ wouldn't mind."

Prowl blinked. "That's.. not possible."

The Wreckers were the best of the best.

Lockdown just smirked and made himself comfortable and Prowl just glared (more) daggers at the commscreen. If that was the way the Decepticon wanted to play it fine, but they _didn't have_ heros; they only had _brutes_ and _mass murders_. Anyway, a lone Deceptcon couldn't hold off the Wreckers by himself, It just wasn't possible. "Now, as I was saying kid, Sixshot's a Ninja. _Specializes_ in them to be exact. I might be able to wrangle you out a training lesson."

"I.. Wouldn't mind continuing my training." Prowl admitted slowly, staying as still as he could. Lockdown might have relaxed more, but Prowl was under no illusions about being about to escape the grip. So, rather than try and escape, he looked anywhere but the screen now, not really happy at admitting that he wasn't the best at circuit-su. He never had been but he knew enough to get by. Or so he'd thought. "What I attempted to your optics.. I should have been able to do it, but ... "

"Lots of rookies have trouble with things." Lockdown was thinking of the Decepticons who were rookie Ninjas, but Prowl didn't need to know that. "Ah, well, I could probably throw something basic together you can practise on until we get to the next outpost. I've got enough scrap metal lying around in the bay to improvise a chassis, and I didn't give Swindle all the processors. Pull one of those apart enough to make it move and you have a drone." He tapped his fingers on Prowl's thigh as he thought, ignoring the way the Autobot started to squirm. "Should get those upgrades in to you too."

"Of course."

"Now. One last question for ya kid. Any idea why they'd send the _Head of Special Ops_ after you?"

"Huh?" Prowl blinked, staring at the image of Lockdown on the commscreen. "_Jazz_ is-?"

"Yea. Normally they send trackers after Ninja. _Not_ Special Ops. They might have branded you a traitor."

Prowl froze, optics widening in horror then his head dropped down to look at where his symbol had been painted over. He looked away, tense, scared. He _wasn't_ a traitor. There was no way that he was. "I- I'm not – you – you _forced_ me…"

"Autobots tend to make snap judgements where traitors are concerned."

"You _coerced_ me into –"

"And _you're_ the one who _asked_ if you get your things kid."

Prowl's hands fisted and humiliation burned in his optics. Lockdown was _right_. He had asked. He'd even thought about running then decided _not_ to, to do what the other wanted. It was a decision made under duress, but – Lockdown had a point. He'd asked, he'd _bargained_ with a Decepticon and he'd _accepted_ an offer _willingly_, no matter the circumstances.

Of course they'd think him a traitor. It was what it looked like, but Prowl knew he wasn't one. He – He'd made the choice under duress. "I – I am _not_ a traitor."

"Suit yourself, kid."

Prowl glared – then blinked when the other let him go. He quickly moved away, whirling to star at the Decepticon. "What.."

"Silver or steel?"

"Pardon."

"The collar. You're the one who's gonna be wearing it."

"..Steel." If there wasn't anyway out, then he had no choice but to go with the flow as much as he _wanted_ to fight his way free. He couldn't. Lockdown was bigger, stronger and Prowl wasn't sure how long he'd last if the Decepticon really wanted to fight. Probably only a matter of kliks.

So, better to go with the lesser of two evils and submit rather than make a bad situation worse. Lockdown grinned and unsubbed the steel collar -seemed the other hadn't just gotten Ninja things off Swindle- Prowl shot him a disgusted look but allowed it to be placed around his neck. It was snug, but not enough to choke. A click then beeping signalled it was locked in place and Prowl glared at the floor. He knew the cage that had been around him since he'd made that _stupid_, naive deal with his captor had now clicked shut and there really was _no_ going back to his old life now.

He was already regretting the choice.

* * *

This chapter was fun to write even if Prowl is thoroughly disgusted/confused/upset by _everything_ now. I hope I did a good job with the differing views of what Decepticon culture _is_, and what sort of prejudices Prowl's grown up with. I will admit the culture is highly influenced by Sparta and the idea that the Autobots view of Decepticons is mainly based on what they have seen on the battlefield/war-front camps. Of course, there are some truly awful Deceptions out there ; *coughBarricadecough*

Name the mentioned cameo and I'll drabble out something of your choosing to put in the next chapter. It's a very plot-pointy chapter so anything you want expanded on I can do, too.


	8. First Interlude

**First Interlude**

Only things I own are Bladeswitch and Earthbane.  
Kudos if you get who the cameos are. I'd also like to say thank you to all my readers and reviewers. :) I really do enjoy all the feedback I get. There is also a poll up on my profile about who you guys think the DJD femme mentioned in chapter 7 will be. Please go vote, as the poll will be open for about 3/4 chapters.

**(Of interludes.)**  
"Spiderlady leaving?"

"For now yes." Blackarachnia knew she had to; it wasn't a matter of personal choice but necessity before the foul organic half decided it was going to mate with the dinobots, whom she'd gathered as her bodyguards. (Or worse yet, try and mate with one of the Decepticons here, and that would earn her Megatron's ire. She wasn't suicidal.) They were useful and she wasn't in the business of mating then killing what she still needed.

She would forever thank Primus that she wasn't the only one amongst the Decepticons to deal with the accursed form. At least the dinobots were too stupid to see anything other than a pretty femme. "I promise I'll return though."

"Me wait for spiderlady. Always."

"You're so good to me." She leaned against Grimlock with a nuzzle and the big lug took it as a show of affection, too stupid to realise she was just using him to do her dirty work. It didn't matter though. She'd leave on her ship -a small craft gifted by Megatron so she could deal with the disgusting organic _urges_- find a nice outpost with several neutrals, mate, then return to the planet to watch the unfolding drama between Megatron and Optimus. As much as she wanted revenge on Optimus for what he'd done, she wasn't going to get in the way of Megatron's claim on killing the Prime himself.

She wasn't suicidal and compared to most Decepticon femmes, her frame was downright fragile. "Do keep the base safe for little old me."

She smirked then sauntered off to her ship, glad she wasn't the only Decepticon with the affliction. No-one judged her - they were all outcasts, the_unwanted dregs_ of a society that claimed to be pure, but they knew the truth - and once she'd passed the probationary period that all defecting Autobots went though (She'd passed the technopath reading that he wasn't a spy with flying colours), no one cared what her interfacing habits were as long as it didn't interfere with her duties as a scientist-soldier (she knew she'd been watched though. But that was to be expected). And, while she was on Earth, as long as she didn't do with Megatron's troops.

She could live with that and she knew just where to go this heat-cycle.

* * *

"Ah come on! I'm tellin' ya there ain't no way I missed something. She's gone. _G-o-n-e_."

"_You _did_, rodent_."

"Oi. No. No way. Do you know how _hard_ it is to sneak around Fort Max when Magnus has this thing locked down thirteen levels tighter than the _Axalon_or _Code of a Hero_ on a bad day? You are taking care of m'ship, right, chopperface?"

"_One would believe you have a deathwish for addressing your Commanding Officer that way, rodent. But yes, your rat's nest of a ship is regrettably _still_docked within _Code of a Hero_._"

Rattletrap grinned. "Yea yea. What you gonna do about it, sweetspark? Can't touch dis through a screen."

And as far he knew, the warship was still in cloaked orbit over New Kaon.

The General on screen smirked. "_Is that so? Perhaps, then, when we are... _face_ to _face."

"Ohh. You gonna show me my place, handsome?"

"_Perhaps._"

"My place or yours?" Rattletrap gave an easy grin and held his hands up in mock surrender at the growl - _clearly_ the answer was his CO's place - before turning serious. "All flirting aside, sir, Arcee is _gone_. It's like she just woke up and vanished and I know what the Autobot tech-heads said. Her fragging CPU was _scrambled_ in the War."

"_Unless... Go over the footage from the last few orns._"

"You think Special Ops?"

The General's grin was toothy.

"Oi do you how many cycles I'll be spending making sweet, sweet love to the footage? I ain't a fragging support mech. But fine, whatever. You _owe_ me a darkcycle at the topless bar in New Kaon, chopperface."

"_We shall see._"

"Yea yea." Rattletrap sighed raised his hands in true defeat at the Look he got. "I'll let you know what I find, sir."

"_See that you do._"

Rattletrap made a face after the connection was cut. "Yesh you'd think getting bumped up to General would improve his humour. Eh, at least he's stopped quotin' that Nebulon playwright whats-its-face."

Even so, a crack of knuckles later and he was hacking his way into the security feeds of Arcee's medical room. Time to find out how one so-called processor-dead femme could just _vanish_ into thin air.

* * *

"A medic."

"Y-Yes." The Autobot medic whimpered as the muzzle of a gun pressed against the back of his helm.

"The frag would the Autobots drag a medic out on one of their 'patrols'?" By the Allspark even they weren't stupid enough to do that and most of their medics sported at _least_ a gun, if not built in weaponry (or the case of the several medics that _refused_ weapons, bodyguards, but those medics were confined to New Kaon). Plus there was a difference between _Doctors_ and _Medics_ in Deception. Doctors were combat-class. Medics were the _non_-combat-class (and _far more likely_ to weld your skidplate to the medical berth if you disobeyed medical orders - even _Megatron_ was no immune to this).

"Combat-medic."

"Huh."

"Doctor, sir."

"Oh." Slagging Autobots and labelling the two classes the same. But hey, it wasn't a non-combat class. Not that would have stopped him but it would have given him pause while his systems sorted though Decepticon Laws of War. Still… there was only one _true_ reason that the Autobots brought a_Doctor_ on the patrols and Barricade's face twisted into a look of rage. "Have some _fun_ with it."

It was only what the Autobots would have done with any of his kind they captured. _Fair was fair_ and Barricade was _not_ inclined to think that there could have been pure intentions. In all his long teravorns of life, Autobots patrolling the colonies _never_ had pure intentions. "Try not to kill that one. Lord Megatron wanted prisoners after all."

"Awww. Come on, we have-"

He whirled on the grunt, ignoring the cries and pleas for non-existent mercy from the Autobot Doctor. "How about you do as told and I won't pike you and leave you to die?"

The grunt nodded when the shocktrooper brought his claws up in unspoken threat.

"Good."

Barricade turned and stalked off, leaving the hapless Autobot Doctor to his fate, though he paused long enough to hear the first scream – and roared with laughter, knowing exactly what'd just been torn out. Pity, he would have liked to join in, but orders where orders and he had to troops to contact first and then Wildrider. In that order of course. He was on duty and Wildrider might be his mate, but they weren't bonded. Most Decepticons didn't for reasons that boiled down to becoming a _liability_ if the other side/s of the bond were offlined.

No-one wanted to be classed as that, so the risk was rarely taken.

Barricade wouldn't bond anyway. It was just another thing to be taken advantage of not to mention there was the whole Gestalt thing going on with Wildrider. Yea. Complicated didn't even start to describe it but Barricade was happy enough.

He parked himself next to the long range commsystems and made himself comfortable while he contacted the rest under his command. It took some time - along with several growled threats - but he came away with good news to report to Megatron. All of the major colonies were in the process of pulling out, with the smaller soon to follow suit. Most of them had at least a squad of Autobots prisoner so that was an added bonus. The Brigadier smirked to himself. The deactivation broadcasts where going to be _fun_.

Once the last of his lieutenants had been dealt with, he dialled the _Miscreant_ commsystem. He ended up with a disgruntled looking Motormaster. "'Rider around?"

"_Yea. Let me get him._"

"_Yo. Sup 'Cade?_"

"How far are you from Earth?"

"_Missed you too, afthead. Uh. A solar cycle._"

Barricade did the maths. Five cycles. Not bad. "Warpgate I guess?"

"_Yup. We picked up Tankor and Astrotrain too._" The Stunticon grinned, almost bouncing on the seat. "_How's the evac gone?_"

"Have fun with the triplechanger." Barricade did not pity the Stunticons right now. "As well as expected."

"_'bane and 'switch?_"

"The slave's with them. He knows his job." _They are safe. _"Or else we get to play what does this do, again."

"_Here I was hoping you'd kept him so we could have a …private showing._" _Good._

Barricade rolled his optics. "I am on duty unlike you, Wildrider." _I am a plugblocker._

"_And? That's never stopped you before, glitch._" _Spoilsport._

"I'm reporting directly to Lord Megatron and I'd rather not have him breathing down my struts because I'm off playing frag or death games." _I value my existence._

Wildrider waved his hands. "_Pity. They're hot to watch._" _You carrying again?_

Barricade spluttered and Wildrider roared with laughter. "_Well?_"

"Heh. Planning on jumping my struts next time we meet?" Barricade cracked a smile though, shifting so the energon stains all over him were more noticeable. Wildrider's optics widened then narrowed, smirk crossing his face. Ohhh. Nice.

"_You been busy._" _Yep_.

"Terribly."

"_Care to share, 'Cade?_"

Barricade just grinned. It didn't take them long to fall into the familiar banter as he regaled his mate the tale of the fight with the Guard in all it's gory detail. It was an age old bantered of hidden meanings and words. It was comfortable and as close as they would ever come to true affection. They didn't mind. It was part of who they were and at the end of the megacycle, they had each other's back.

_That_ was all that mattered.

* * *

"_Report._"

"The destruction of the _Iron Breach_ is Black Shadow's work."

"_What of survivors?_" Because he couldn't have lost a whole _Warship_ en-route from Lucifer - one of the biggest colonies next to New Kaon.

"Three life pods. Kaon reports thirty-eight younglings, sixty seven non-combats, a handful of slaves and twelve carrying warriors." Out of one thousand three hundred and ten in total that had been evac'd from the colony, minus the warriors staying behind to fight the Autobots.

Megatron closed his optics and counted to thirteen, twice. _"I see. Hail the nearest Decepticon transport. In the meantime, take them on board and determine the events that lead to the betrayal. The find and make an example of the traitor. _Broadcast it,_ Tarn. We are close to victory. _I will not be denied."

So it wouldn't happen again. So they wouldn't lose any more lives when they had so _few_ they could sacrifice so close to a victory that would see them reclaim what was theirs. While the Decepticons did not tolerate weakness within the ranks, they did not abandon their own at the slightest whim either - though they encouraged Autobots to think that so hey'd let their guards down. It was _counterproductive_ to forging an army that worked cohesively and had some measure of trust in their fellow Unitmembers. He was a tyrant, yes, but even he could not rule if he did not have a people to rule over, after all. And those they did abandon on the field they would always reclaim _if possible _at a later date, provided they were not dead. (Conversely if you were stupid enough to get captured on a mission, you were _out of luck_ until your unit came for you. Or you wer an officer of value.)

"As you command, Lord Megatron." Tarn nodded – careful not to betray his distaste at the thought of younglings running about _his_ ship, however brief a period it would be - then switched off the comm. He turned to the rest of his unit. "Bring those pods in and start questioning the survivors. Vos, ready the medic. We may require it."

If he was going to play host, he would be a _proper_, _courteous_ host towards his fellow Decepticons. Then have the medic clean the ship from top to bottom after the guests had left, while he and his team sipped highgrade and plotted Black Shadow's death in the most _painful_ way possible.

Vos nodded, optics glinting as the Ninja hurried off to inform the medic it's services might be required.

* * *

Wreckage would not admit to being scared. No way. He was a brave, fifteen vorn old sparkling who was never scared. He was just curled up because there wasn't much room in the lifepod, that was all. _Really_.

Ok, no. He was scared. Fleeing from the _Iron Breach_ had been the most harrowing experience of his sheltered life. If it hadn't been for the adults (and the three slaves, he couldn't forget the Autobot slaves, but they were under orders, right? _Right_. Autobot's _didn't_ care about Decepticons and he'd been told they ate Decepticon sparklings for dawn-cycle meal.) – herding his group of sparklings and younglings into the lifepod, he doubted they'd have escaped the ship which had gone into lockdown on its own.

He could still see the mad Decepticon's face as it tore into and killed those that tried to stop it.

It wasn't pretty and Wreckage wasn't sure if the Decepticon had been _glitched_ because what kind of warrior would do that to another Decepticon_without_ provocation? It hadn't even been punishment and Wreckage knew what _that_ was. Even a twenty orn old sparkling knew what punishment was.

The one who screwed up – and got caught out (that was _important_)- was whipped (anyone under twenty vorns got the electro-rod either on the hands or back and that hurt like the pit) and they were strung up for megacycle if they were old enough. Well, that was as far as _he_ knew. Sometimes if someone screwed up enough on the colony they were dragged off to the Colony Commander who then dealt with them.

Wreckage still didn't know what that meant, but the older younglings – those old enough to be trained properly – said it _wasn't_ anything good. But, even then, the sparkling still didn't understand why the Decepticon had done that to his own kind. Maybe the mad Decepticon hadn't been disciplined enough growing up and thought he could get away with doing all the big No-Nos. Or worst yet he was _**TRAITOR**_.

Red optics went wide and he curled up more. Traitors were **horrible** and they clearly killed other Decepticons and that wasn't nice. You were supposed to kill Autobots because they made Decepticons suffer and live in fear. You didn't kill your unit (That was bad. If you couldn't trust your unit to have your back when it mattered, then you were _Doing It Wrong_) and you didn't turn on your support crew either because them someone might stuff sand in your energon or worse – _mud_. Or do worse than that, but his mind couldn't come up with anything worse than mud in energon. Well, except for lead shavings but they were kinda tasty.

One of the warriors – a red one the others had called _doctor_ - shifted next to him, hand falling on his helm and giving it a ruffle while the energy field said it was going to be ok. Wreckage curled up against the warrior with a whimper and peered around, noticing all of the older Decepticons were trying to keep the sparklings calm – even a slave or two was doing their part.

Ewww. He'd _never_ seek comfort from a _slave_.

He wanted to back on Lucifer with his agemates playing Auto-Con or watching the training drills –or younglings using a condemned prisoner as target practice because that looked like the _coolest thing eve_r - that he'd soon be doing (in a vorn when his weapons systems were more than just a bunch of_useless_ kibble like they were now). He didn't wanna be on the ship. It was _scary_ and almost everyone had scrapes of some kind.

He curled up more, biting his lip. He wasn't scared, _he wasn't scared_!

"Don't worry."

"I'm not!"

The doctor raised an optic arch but said nothing about the obvious lie. "They won't just abandon us."

"Because Decepticons stick together!" Wreckage preened at the nod he got and with a warrior's approval, it was easier to pretend he wasn't scared. It helped to focus on things he's learned – had beaten into him via electro-rod beatings on the hands – and that was one of the first things he'd learned. You don't tolerate the weak – they were weak and they wouldn't be good Decepticons- but keeping your unit together was vital, as was teamwork and all the adults seemed to think so to because when Orders to evac had come they'd moved in sync while the colony's third-in-charge had rounded up the warriors that could fight – while talking to someone on another colony and organising something. It'd been awesome to watch and he was looking forward to the megacycle he too would be amongst such well trained and disciplined troops, working to help the Decepticons rise up against the oppression of the Autobots. –

"_Good news._"

And then all the adults and older younglings seemed to sit up straight as a face wearing the Decepticon symbol appeared. Wreckage blinked, not understanding the importance but old enough to know that something was up. "_We caught your distress beacons and the three lifepods will be docked to our ship while we await the nearest transport's arrival._"

"But more should have escaped! I saw them launch!" The doctor's hand fell heavily on his helm and Wreckage cringed down a bit. While he wasn't cuffed, the warning was clear: Shut up and pay attention.

"_Unfortunately, Black Shadow was rather thorough in his quest to destroy you all, even cloaked as you were. We surmise our arrival spooked him. We would like to speak with anyone who can provide details of the attack. Our medic is on standby to assist in the treatment of any injured._"

"You shall have our full cooperation in thanks for the timely rescue." A warrior – Grindcore– said with a bow.

The commlinks clicked off. Grindcore turned to the rest of the pod. "You _will_ give them your full co-operation. Do _not_ make nuances of yourselves lest you be… detained. Those of you of training age, consider this _advanced_ military training."

"Yes, sir." The younglings responded.

"Why?" A sparkling near Wreckage spoke up.

"That was **Tarn** of the _Decepticon Justice Division_. He answers _directly_ to Lord Megatron and he has an elctro-rod _just_ for disobedient children." Grindcore grinned wickedly as those under sixteen vorns made to hide behind the nearest adult, wide optics staring at him. "So be good and you won't lose the plating off your hands and backs."

Wreckage decided then and there that he was staying as close as possible to the red sports car everyone dressed as Doctor.

* * *

Fulcrum had just finished resetting the W.A.P's navi-systems when a shadow fell over him. Looking up, his vocaliser made a funny sort of clicking before a burst of fear-static escaped him and he stood up so fast that he banged his head on the inside of the console. Instinctually the techie backed away and held his hands up, trying to make himself appear as non-threatening as a possible. This was more do-able than say Misfire or something because his frame was lighter and less bulky than his unitmates.

The D.J.D's Ninja only chuckled, optics dancing with ill hidden delight. Fulcrum dryswallowed; he couldn't think of anything that would … put him on the List.

A data-pad was held out. Several kliks passed before the gunformer's optics narrowed.

"Ah – O-Of course." Right, he was supposed to take that and…

Slender fingers closed over a wrist deceptively light in grip. Fulcrum knew better than to pull away though, even if he jumped a foot or so into the air and let out another static sound. Vos seemed to study him before the Ninja pulled him close enough to hear a whisper (the pronunciation was terrible of course). "Survivor data."

And then Fulcrum was shoved away, the sadist seemed to smirk before heading back to the _Peaceful Tyranny_.

"Fulcrum! You al.. er."Crankcase paused, unsure of what to do as that was _their_ techie that someone (other than them) had gotten handsy with but on the other hand – yea no. It was a D.J.D member and Fulcrum looked like he'd seen a shade or something. "Fulcrum?"

"I'm – ah – OK. I think."

"You look like you saw a shade."

"Uh – ah. It was nothing." Just a reminder of what unit he – and several other support-personnel - had been attached to during the Great War. Not an experience he was wanting to repeat, given it had taken him to the heart of the battlefield during his time as logistics personnel and he'd _seen_ what they could do when let lose. It made their work as the D.J.D seem down right tame at times.

The closing of the airlock - signifying the docking shoot disengagement - dragged him out of his thoughts. "Anyway, we're good to go."

"Right. I'll let Krok know."

He nodded absent-mindedly as the combat-class headed off, looking at the datapad in hand then mentally groaned.

Data collection _and_ cross referencing were not his favourite things in the world, but right now, he'd take anything that would steer him from the battle of Styx and what he'd seen there.

_Nothing_ good _ever_ came of those memories.

* * *

Escaping the _Iron Breach_ was not an experience the slave wanted to repeat. Ever, at all. Bad enough that he'd had Bladeswitch to look after but trying to drag - literally - Earthbane away from the fight - away from the rest of her training unit, most of whom had _not_ survived- had been an experience he_never_ wanted to do again. His mistress had, of course, blamed him and used the shockcollar.

But compared to what _Barricade_ and _Wildrider_ would have done had anything happened to their eldest creation, he would take the shockcollar, taunts, screams and kicks over a painful deactivation that would have lasted orns.

Of course, in the process of getting his young mistresses to safety (no-one else, though he could have tried, but he didn't. He didn't want to and his orders had been to keep them safe, not anyone else), they had been hurt. It was no fault of his own and they had been treated by the DJD's medic already. The medic had even treated him, as basic as it was.

The Autobot felt sorry for the jet, but there was little anyone could do to help a fellow prisoner. Especially _not_ a _pet_ - that was what the collar meant, unless it was a modified slave-collar. In most slaves' eyes that indicated some willing acceptance of the situation. It was _disgusting_. Who in their right mind would _want_ to be a Decepticon pet? Not him, that was for sure.

At least now they were off the _Peaceful Tyranny_ and on the way to New Kaon.

The Autobot liked the crew well enough, for Decepticons.

"Designation, age, pronoun of choice."

"Earthbane, 36 vorns, She. That's Bladeswitch. She's only 13 orns. The slave belongs to my creators. Dunno how long they've had it but longer than me."

The once Autobot blinked - of course. She had no idea this wasn't the first time he'd been in Barricade's clutches- but he couldn't protest being addressed as 'it' even if he wanted to. Barricade had long ago taken his voice. Anyway, it didn't matter. He knew what he was in his mistress's optics. Property. A _thing_.

"It's function?"

A shrug. "Nanny, stressball, fragtoy. Blue's whatever my tor's want."

'Blue' winced to the choice of words, ducking his helm down to hide the hatred in his optics. Hatred of his situation in life, of what had been - was - done to him. He was no more a fragtoy than he was a stressball or a nanny. He was something to be used and abused until it broke, or his masters grew bored of him.

"I see." The techie nodded, not even batting an optic at the youngling's words. The slave wanted to scream. There was something so _inherently wrong_about the Decepticons if they thought it was OK to allow their young to witness such basal, carnal and disgusting acts. Not to mention the way the Decepticons seemed to do it anywhere and everywhere - and he assumed they did it while on duty to, the disgusting perverts. Not to mention they spark-to-spark interfaced on a regular basis and that was all kinds of disgusting that 'Blue' couldn't find the words for it, even in his own mind.

"You have the codes?"

For his collar and 'Blue' cringed down at that question while the techie snickered.

"Uh huh. Tor made me memorise them and I've already used the shock one." Earthbane's voice was smug.

"Good. Who are your creators?"

"Barricade and Wildrider." Earthbane smirked at the startled look. "Why's a techie like you with warriors? I though your kind lived in _bunkers_ or something."

"Ah. I'm their on-site support-personnel. We don't see much fighting."

"Oh." Earthbane made a face. "That's boring."

No. it was a _good_ thing. The Autobot refrained from making a face though, keeping his optics on the ground.

Neither Decepticon seemed to notice and the little one in his arms was deep in recharge, tiny claws gripping him. The poor thing had cried herself to sleep once they'd gotten off the _Iron Breach_.

"If you say so. Ah right. One last question: Weapon's integration?"

"Uh... I still shoot myself in the foot and miss my targets half the time?"

Fulcrum facepalmed and 'Blue' giggled soundlessly. He couldn't blame the Decepticon. Between his mistress and the rest of the younglings still undergoing weapons integration it would be a _minefield_ if they had to defend themselves again. "Right. Well. If we get attacked, leave the shooting to the _warriors_."

"Yea, fine." Earthbane didn't want to shoot her sister accidentally again _anyway_.

The techie nodded, fiddled with his datapad the moved onto the next mech while Earthbane simply settled back against her Autobot nanny, scowl on her face as she glared at nothing.

"You could have _saved_ them... _Stupid thing_."

* * *

You won't find out the djd-medic's story for a while yet, but he is a canon character, as is 'Blue' *pets them.* The Scavengers may show up again later in the second arc.

Thoughts, comments and anything you care to share about the fic is very much welcomed and appreciated. I'm also taking prompts for the next round of Interludes that will be out around chapter 16/17. Please don't forget to vote at the poll on my profile.

Next chapter will focus on Autobots, that much I'll tell you.


	9. Repairs

**Repairs**

Only things I own are Wildcard and the mentioned Novastream.

Sorry for the wait with this chapter.  
**(Of repairs and orders.)**

"_Jazz. What can I do for you?_" The Autobot-aligned neutral nodded in greeting.

"Yo, Drift. Long time no speak." Jazz grinned as he leaned against the console, keeping his end of the conversation voice only. "Think you could get a medic ready along with these?"

Drift paused as Jazz transmitted the codes and parts he needed - optics widening. The code wasn a base-wide lockdown and cessation of certain CCTV feeds - then nodded. "_I'll pass this onto Commander Novastream. The medic'll let you know when things are ready. _"

"Thanks mech." Jazz kept his vice light, even if he was wondering when Rodimus had been promoted or reassigned; most likely reassigned, given last he'd heard, they wanted to give the prodigy field training. "Tell yer commander I'm sorry for disrupting his base."

"_I'll let her know._"

"Ah - Right." A femme commander, huh? Either she was neutral (like Override) or she looked enough like a mech be allowed into a position of command (like Inferno). It was highly unusual, but it didn't bother him that much, unlike the younger generation

Once the console clicked off, Jazz dragged a hand over his face. Most of that had been done on automatic; his thoughts still wanted to circle back to Prowl even after a few breems of recharge.

He couldn't blame them.

His emotions kept sending the ice cold feeling of _betrayal_ down his backstruts. He'd dealt with traitors in his line of work before – hard not to when you worked in Special Ops and normally he could separate his emotions from his job; this one hit too close to home, too close to what he'd _lost_ back in the Great War. It didn't help that Prowl had _That_ Tactical CPU in his overall processor and honestly looked like he was with the Decepticon _willingly_ at this point.

Jazz had scoured the image captures for any sign of those blasted shockcollars the 'Cons used.

He'd found _none_. Not even a lick of anything remotely resembling it. That was a punch to the gut - one Jazz was unwilling to accept but evidence was evidence. It didn't stop him from hoping Blurr's investigations would prove otherwise. But, with the evidence as it was now, Prowl _was_ a traitor and Jazz _had_ to operate on that fact and shove any and all emotions out of the equation. He hoped, for Prowl's sake, the Ninja was held against his will.

Or perhaps that hope was the result of his emotions wanting to spend time with Prowl. It wasn't _his_ Prowl and he knew that, but Primus Below they shared so many traits that it was almost too easy to forget and pretend, even for a klick.

The logical part of him knew that wasn't fair on the young mech who knew nothing about any of this. Emotionally?

He wanted to be selfish and childish and not care what logic told him.

Specialised sensors common to all Special Ops mechs detected movement behind him, jerking him away from his thoughts and back to the here and now. A nanoklick later revealed it was just the twins stirring from their nap, yet it was enough to derail errant thoughts of could have beens. "You guys get some energon. We'll be disembarking soon and the medic'll have my head if you show up unfueled."

Jazz wasn't keen on facing a medic's ire – any medic's ire.

"Were you having any luck with data we taken from station?" Jetstorm asked after several kliks, making his way to the small dispenser on the shuttle.

"Prowl's definitely with him. They did some trading with Swindle but they seemed to have left not long before we caught up." Jazz started pulling up some charts that mapped the Autobot and Decepticon parts of the galaxy.

While the Autobot Commonwealth was large, it bordered Nebulon space to the north and no-one was game enough to step foot there. It might have been 3 million years since the end of the Great War, but the Nebulons still held grudges like you wouldn't believe; the centre of the galaxy was Vok territory and frag if he wanted to deal with them ever again. The Decepticon space to the south seemed to stretch out along the galactic rim more than it pushed inwards. Or so the official version went. There was neutral space of course but that was really only a thin no-mech's land between the Autobot and Decepticon areas. That was saying nothing of the planets in Cybertronian space that claimed neutrality.

It was more something to distract himself than anything, but it would serve a purpose too. He pointed at the charts as he explained. "They headed off this way and I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say they were heading for another outpost deeper into Decepticon territory. So once we get ourselves fixed up, I'll report this back to Magnus and see what he has to say. I don't know if he'll want you two going that far into 'Con controlled space."

"It is unknowing if willing, yes?" Jetfire spoke up, tilting his helm.

"Deeper? I am not wishing to be deeper going." Jetstorm pushed a cube into his twin's hands.

"Unknown. Magnus'll likely want to get you kids back to Fort Max." Which was cool with him. Gave him a greater leeway in his own actions and he wouldn't need to keep an optic on any rookies. "But we'll see either way."

Jazz shut down the charts and keyed open the ramp when the terminal blipped, signalling the medic had sent them the all clear signal. He hauled himself up with something a quick stretch. "All right, mechs, lets go get ourselves ship shape."

The twins followed after Jazz like cyberpuppies. It was cute, even if they were a good head taller than him. They gawked at the station as the exited, though it wasn't the looming buildings they were looking at; it was the silvery-blue sky of an alien world.

"Wow.. It is so.. "

"Different. Not like Cybertron." Jetfire finished.

"Yeah. It's brighter than Cybertron's sky in light-cycle and the sun's closer than Cybertron's is, too." He felt guilty somewhat for teasing them like that – more so when he _knew_ they had no memory of their previous lives and had only seen the sky in the sims- but what he said was true. Athenia's sky was very similar to Cybertron's own sky, but far brighter.

"Really? See it we will?"

"Yea. Once Magnus clears you guys for outside flight. After you."

Once inside the building, he herded them down the designated path to the medbay and not for the first time did he thank Primus and the Allspark for those codes. They cleared out the nearest available medbay. In this case, it wasn't that far from the entrance they'd used. Maybe fifteen rods at best. It wasn't the biggest one and was clearly one of the ones designed for treating emergencies – and neutral fliers by the look of it. Which would explain how things were obtained within a half-cycle and not the cycle Jazz had figure for downtime.

Nice. A little worrying yes, but he'd later feed the rest of the base some cover story of escorting neutral diplomats who also happened to fliers. Diplomats who'd run afoul of Seekers thinking they were Autobot-aligned fliers. Given the rule (or propaganda) about no Autobot fliers – and the hatred Seekers on a whole had for any flier that seemed Autobot-aligned… Yea, the base would buy it.

Though talk about Seeker-held grudges. Urrg.

A small shake of his head to clear the thoughts away and the Ninja hopped up on one of the berths as soon as they where inside. The twins followed suit without even a glance around; It spoke a lot about how often they were in medbay at Fort Max for check-ups and scans and various other tests the scientists and medics wanted to run. Not that Jazz blamed them, given the Decepticon code that had been used.

No sooner had they settled than a red and silver mech walked into the room. He gave all three a quick scan while he placed the parts on the table then headed to the storage lockers for the rest of the supplies. "I'm Wildcard, senior medic on the outpost."

The name sounded familiar, but the glyphs used indicated it wasn't the mech Jazz was thinking of. "Yo. Name's Jazz. Cyberninja.

"I am Jetstorm. Moron over there is Jetfire. "

"Moron I am not. That is being you brother." Jetfire poked his glossa out at his twin, who did the same.

Jazz shook his head and chuckled at the antics. "You know what happened to a young mech called Rodimus?"

"He was reassigned several orns ago. I don't know more than that." Wildcard shrugged, pulling out a miniature welder, several clamps and two coolant bags. A once over of the twins and the medic headed for Jetfire. The young jet held out his wingless arm and the medic sighed and turned off the pain receptors before he opened the patch job.

"..It is odd. "

Jetstorm blinked. "Huh?"

"His symbol. Do you not see it, brother? It is to be like Perceptor."

Wildcard nodded, optics flicked up for a second before looking back to his work. "Didn't anyone tell you what the Guard is compared to the rank-and-file?"

Jazz shook his head and spoke up, voice dropping just a fraction. "The higher-ups have been paying more attention to their training."

"Of course." Wildcard nodded and Jazz relaxed. The medic wasn't paid to ask questions and he only had the honour of repairing Elite Guard because he really was the senior medic. The less he knew the better off everyone here would be.

"Yes, but training is ridiculously easy." Jetfire and Jetstorm grinned as if sharing a joke. "Erm. Until Starscream was showing up in Combat Sims, but are to be winning we are now! He is no match for us!"

Wildcard chuckled with a small indulgent smile as he worked on re-attaching Jetfire's winglet. "Training always seems so much easier than the real thing, as I'm sure you found out. Looks like the 'Con that did this had some pretty sharp weaponry on him."

"Oh, he did, But was fun battle." Jetfire smirked. "I could have taken Rotor-mech down, no problem."

"No. Brother was to be forgetting combat lesson. 'No getting too close to Decepticon Fliers.'"

"Hey, no sense going over it now. You did good out there. Don't beat yerselves up over it." Jazz broke in, trying to stave off any argument before it could start. This little fieldtrip had shown him one thing: Without actual combat experience, they'd gotten far too cocky and the sims with the Starscream drone were hardly indicative of an actual battle. Vortex had proven that and most Decepticons where cunning pieces of slag. He'd have to talk with Command about mixing in some actually data from past battles. That should give them more of an idea of the twins actual skillset.

"Sorry, Sir."

"He's right. Now, don't stress those welds for a cycle or two. Give 'em time to set." Wildcard nodded and sealed up the last of the repairs on Jetfire and moved over to Jetstorm. Unlike his twin, it seemed the blue mech had gotten off on the lighter side of things and after replacing any wiring that needed it, he welded the injuries closed. "Definitely the luckier of the two."

Jetstorm gave a weak grin. "I'm not as hot headed as brother is."

Jetfire shot his twin a dirty look. "Thank you for checking us over."

Wildcard finished up and patted Jetstorm on the shoulder. "It was no problem. Just try to stay out of the line of fire next time, hm?" He moved over to Jazz and frowned when he got a better look at Jazz's injuries. "Primus, did you let them hit you?"

Jazz chuckled and leaned back on the berth to let Wildcard do his job. "We were a little bit out-numbered, and I tend to attract fire for some reason."

"I can tell." Re-wiring and repairing the damage done to the Ninja didn't take long and soon the last new weld was in place. "We have some paint around somewhere. Want me to do any touch ups for you?"

Jazz shook his head as he hopped off the medical berth. "After I contact Magnus. These two can wait unto they get back to base."

"Of course. I'll wait here."

"Good mech. Right you two. Back to ship." Jazz ignored the groan from the pair. He knew they wanted to explore, but now wasn't the time.

*** * * **

"Jazz. What can I do for you?" The Magnus nodded once in greeting.

Jazz shifted his weight into a more comfortable stance as he started his report. "I analysed the data we got from the Combaticon outpost and I have a fair idea of where Lockdown is headed. I also confirmed that Prowl is with him, but there's no way of knowing the circumstances behind it. Couldn't find a lick of those collars."

"Decepticon territory no doubt. Intel points to a probability of Prowl being abducted. For what reason remains unknown, However that does not change the fact he is a ninja, incomplete training or not. I want him found."

Jazz nodded. "Yea and I don't think it's a good idea to take the twins with me."

"I'll send over a retrieval team for them. Remember, your objective is to get him out functioning and CPU intact, Jazz. Do not do anything reckless."

Jazz grinned at the pointed look. Magnus knew him too well. But he did have a point. It was likely Powl was under lock and key and the last thing they needed was Prowl in more danger than he already was. "Yea, no sweat man. Do you want me to see if I can get 'em a ride from the folks here? It'd be faster than waiting for ride to pick 'em up for them."

"Very well."

Jazz nodded. "Anything further, sir?"

"No. And good luck."

"Thank you, sir. Jazz out." He cut the link and sent a ping to Drift. He turned to the twins while he waited for a reply. "Are you two gonna be okay going back by yourselves?"

"Yea." Both of them nodded.

"Good mechs. I'll get you two set up in there when it's ready and make sure you get on your way." Just to avoid any problems of course.

"What can I do for you Jazz?" Came the puzzled commlink from the outpost commander.

"I'm wondering if you can spare a transport, Drift? My friends here need a secure transport back to Cybertron." While Drift was cleared to know he had company, no-one but the medic had been cleared to know who it was and while Jazz had faith in Wildcard's discretion - better safe than sorry.

There was a pause before the reply came. "There's one a few bays over. Clearance Zone's in effect."

"Thanks, man. The Guard will see that it's returned." He cut the connection and started back towards the ramp. "Let's get you guys home."

Once they where on their way, then the real mission would begin.

* * *

Thank you for all the comments and reviews on the fic so far.

The poll up on my profile is still open and can also be found over on my livejournal ( . ); results will *not* affect the fic (that part's already written). There's


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